At the showtime of this month , a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketexploded on a launch padin Cape Canaveral , Florida . You ’d think that would probably set the party back quite a while before it started launches again . But the company ’s president has claimed they could come back to vanish as soon as November .
That would be a remarkable turnaround , if dead on target . believe that another launch operator , Orbital Sciences , areonly nowpreparing to take off establish their Antares rocket again , after one of their rocket exploded almosttwo years ago . For SpaceX to complete the same return to flying in less than three months would be a will to the “ never say never ” posture at Elon Musk ’s company .
One reason SpaceX can retort to flight so early is that it has other launch stamp pad it can use . It has one at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California , and is in use upgrading another at Cape Canaveral . The latter , Launch Pad 39A , was signify for forthcoming flights of the Falcon Heavy skyrocket ( which has understandably been detain to betimes next year ) , but can also ostensibly be used for Falcon 9 launches .
One sticking power point is that SpaceX stilldoes not knowwhat do the explosion on September 1 ; the rocket was going through a routine mental testing and its engine were n’t even on . There are tidy sum of theory at the moment , but until the cause is forthcoming , the company wo n’t go through the motions of plunge , in grammatical case the issue rears itself again .
The three - calendar month coming back to flight is therefore a “ good case scenario ” for the companionship . But Shotwell added that both pads would be quick by November , with each provide different flight options ; Vandenberg is better for polar orbits , while Cape Canaveral is the only one of the two that can fly Dragon cargo missions to the ISS owe to the orientation of its launch .
As for the pad in the detonation , Launch Complex 40 , functionary from the Air Force enjoin the damage was only “ moderate ” and was “ definitely repairable ” , reported theWall Street Journal . It ’s also recently emerged that NASA ’s OSIRIS - male monarch spacecraft onlynarrowly escaped serious damagefrom the explosion , too .
For those fearing a long hiatus in SpaceX flights , this is all good news . And , with the announcement that its contender Blue Origin is plan to launch itsNew Glenn rocketby the oddment of the ten , SpaceX will need to continue to evidence it ’s the major player stimulate up the manufacture at the import – not anyone else .
