Back in September 2016 , a SpaceX rocketexplodedduring a unremarkable test in what were – at the time – mysterious circumstances . So mysterious , in fact , that SpaceX on the face of it thought the garden rocket may have been shoot by a gun .
That ’s the title in anew bookbeing bring out on March 20 calledThe Space Barons : Elon Musk , Jeff Bezos and the Quest to colonise the Cosmos , written by Christian Davenport .
In the Good Book , Davenport tell that SpaceX investigate all avenues for how the rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida may have exploded . This included the possibility that it had been countermine .
“ We literally think someone had shot the rocket , ” CEO Elon Musk said in summertime 2017 , according to an excerpt from the Word onThe Washington Post . “ We get things that looked like bullet maw , and we cipher that someone with a high - power rifle , if they had blast the Eruca sativa in the right locating , the exact same thing would have happened . ”
The rocket appeared to have explode when a helium tank in its upper stage failed . So to replicate this , SpaceX acquired a rifle and snap another helium cooler , to see what happened .
“ [ W]e were having a concentrated time blowing these bottles up , ” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said , writes Davenport .
“ So , instead , they stupefy a rifle , ‘ and we shoot it , ’ Shotwell said . ‘ And the signature tune on the bottle was just like the theme song on the bottle that we recovered . That was an easy mental test to do . It ’s Texas , right , everybody ’s got a gunman and you could bollocks stuff up . ’ ”
The explosion again , in all its explodey halo
The possibility ofsabotagewas so tempting that they even sent an employee to the facility of one of their contender at Cape Canaveral , the United Launch Alliance ( ULA ) . They asked if they could scrutinise the cap , as it had a direct line of sight to the rocket , and a video had evince a shadow and a shiny lily-white spot on the cap . The ULA reject , but Air Force investigator receive nothing improper .
Ultimately , however , the idea of sabotage was ruled out . SpaceX ’s investigationfound thatthe explosion was likely cause by a build - up of oxygen in one of the rocket ’s three helium tanks , known as composite overwrapped pressure vessels ( COPVs ) , “ head to ignition and the subsequent loser of the COPV ” .
It ’s somewhat interesting , though , that SpaceX would even take sabotage . The troupe has long been regard as give the launching manufacture a mighty shiver - up , not least with the launching of theirFalcon Heavy rocketlast month . Perhaps you ca n’t blame them for being a little bit cautious .
