SpaceX plans a return to flight next week with Falcon rocket

LOS ANGELES / Agencies

SpaceX plans to resume flights as early as next week after finding the cause of an explosion that destroyed a rocket and satellite on a Florida launch pad in September.
The Hawthorne, California-based company is aiming for a January 8, flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base, the Los Angeles Times reported. The launch still needs approval by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The company said its investigation of the September 1 explosion found that a tank failed within the larger, second-stage liquid oxygen tank.
SpaceX plans to launch 10 satellites for Iridium Communications Inc. on a Falcon 9 rocket. The satellites will be used to provide mobile communications on land, sea and air.
Iridium says it in a tweet that it is pleased with the SpaceX’s announcement and target launch date.
The Iridium NEXT constellation will replace the world’s largest commercial satellite network of low-earth orbit satellites, Iridium Communications Inc. has said.
SpaceX had said it expected to return to flight as soon as November. But that anticipated launch date slipped back to December, and then January.
“Clearly, they’re being extra cautious,” said Marco Caceres, senior space analyst for the Teal Group. “SpaceX usually pushes ahead a lot faster. So it seems like they’re not rushing ahead at this point, which is a good thing.”
SpaceX is making design changes to the overwrapped pressure vessels and “corrective actions address all credible causes and focus on changes which avoid the conditions that led” to the potential reasons for the September accident, the company said.
The fiery explosion, photos of which were splashed across front pages, was a major setback in a year that also saw a spectacular, first-ever landing at sea. In April, thousands tuned into a live-stream to watch a Falcon 9 rocket launch and, roughly eight minutes later, touch down on an unmanned drone-ship bobbing in the Atlantic ocean. Reusable rockets are key to Musk’s vision of opening access to space and ultimately building a human colony on Mars.
The explosion at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station destroyed a satellite that was to be managed by Israeli satellite operator Spacecom and was also to help Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg bring high-speed internet access to remote parts of Africa. SpaceX said that it pored through 3,000 channels of video and telemetry data that spanned just 93 milliseconds from the first sign of trouble to the explosion.