SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 explodes over Texas, upsets chance of NASA bid

(PHOTO: SpaceX)The body of SpaceX's Falcon 9.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Reusable (F9R) exploded within 38 seconds from launch over McGregor, Texas on Aug. 22.

"Earlier today, in McGregor, Texas, SpaceX conducted a test flight of a three engine version of the F9R test vehicle (successor to Grasshopper)," the privately owned SpaceX said.

The rocket is designed to self-destruct whenever an "anomaly" is identified.

"During the flight, an anomaly was detected in the vehicle and the flight termination system automatically terminated the mission."

The company somewhat sees this explosion as something inevitable and part of the testing phase.

"With research and development projects, detecting vehicle anomalies during the testing is the purpose of the program," said the statement from spokesman John Taylor.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO and also the lead of SpaceX, provided a brief explanation via his Twitter account.

"Three engine F9R Dev1 vehicle auto-terminated during test flight. No injuries or near injuries. Rockets are tricky," Musk tweeted.

According to Bloomberg, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is approaching the final stage of selection for the manned missions to station by 2017.

SpaceX is one of the contenders for this particular mission.

"The timing is difficult because you have this failure just before the award," Marco Caceres, director of space studies at Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant Teal Group, said Tuesday. "At a minimum it may delay the announcement because NASA needs to get its ducks in a line and get all the information.

SpaceX has also denied that the postponement of AsiaSat 6 mission has nothing to do with the Falcon 9's anomaly.

"After a thorough review, we are confident that there is no direct link. Had the same blocked sensor port problem occurred with an operational Falcon 9, it would have been outvoted by several other sensors. That voting system was not present on the test vehicle."

Prior to the Texas incident, SapceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from a launch facility Cape Canaveral marking the eleventh successful flight in a row for Falcon 9.

Falcon 9 rockets are engineered by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to transport satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit.

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