SpaceX’s historic Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched for the first time last month appears to have exploded, according to reports, potentially delaying the return to flight of humans from American soil.
On Saturday, April 20, an explosion was reported at a test stand at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Images and video showed smoke rising from the area following a “reddish-orange plume” in the sky, reportedIn a statement, SpaceX confirmed that something had gone awry. “Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” they said.
"On April 20, 2019, an anomaly occurred at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station during the Dragon 2 static test fire," Jim Williams, a spokesperson from the 45th Space Wing, toldThe explosion appears to have happened during a routine test of the spacecraft’s SuperDraco thrusters, although the cause is unknown. Located on the side of the vehicle, these are designed to take the spacecraft away from the rocket in case of an emergency before or during launch.
The vehicle that exploded is believed to be the same one used on the historic Demonstration Mission 1 in . That uncrewed flight saw the vehicle fly to the International Space Station for the first time, the first spacecraft designed for humans to launch to orbit from U.S. soil since the final flight of the Space Shuttle in 2011.SpaceX had planned to launch its first humans on a Crew Dragon vehicle – albeit a different one to that flown on DM-1 – as early as summer of this year as part of the DM-2 mission.
“It’s quite possible that the accident investigation to follow will be SpaceX’s most difficult and trying yet,” notedIf confirmed, the Crew Dragon explosion would be the second recent setback for NASA’s Commercial Crew program. In early April, Boeing – the other company being funded as part of this program – said it was delaying the first uncrewed test flight of its Starliner vehicle
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