SpaceX says 2-foot strut snapped, brought down rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX suspects a 2-foot steel strut snapped inside its rocket and led to last month's launch accident.
The company's founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, said Monday that hundreds of these struts had flown many times before without any problem. But two minutes into the June 28 launch, one of the struts in the second stage of the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket likely broke loose.
The strut was holding down a high-pressure helium bottle in the liquid oxygen tank. If the strut snapped as engineers believe, according to Musk, the bottle would have shot to the top of the tank at high speed, dooming the rocket and its Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station.
It was the third lost shipment for the orbiting lab in eight months. Russia has resumed deliveries, while SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA's contracted suppliers, remain grounded.
Read more: http://www.reporternews.com/news/state/spacex-says-2-foot-strut-snapped-brought-down-rocket (Abilene Reporter-News)
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