SpaceX F9R Rocket Fails, Blows Up Mid-Air
Ever since its inception, SpaceX has taken space travel to great heights. It’s the only private company responsible for taking cargo to and fro from the International Space Station. Its rockets have been appreciated for their safety features; something that came handy yesterday.
A test rocket which was launched yesterday has a snag that would have made it veer off course. Fortunately, the emergency systems on board automatically stepped in and destructed the rocket mid-air. This is the first major failure in SpaceX’s history. There were no injuries. Well, apart from the injury to SpaceX’s finances; they just lost a really expensive rocket. A second F9R rocket is in its building stage.
SpaceX’s rocket, the F9R, is a reusable rocket and a successor to the Grasshopper rocket. It is capable of launching and landing back on the launch pad, thereby increasing efficiency and bringing down costs. The rocket has just one stage, and it has three engines to propel it to the skies.
The company’s founder Elon Musk says he plans for human colonization of Mars and other planets, and that it is an important step in human evolution. Reusable rockets will surely help in organizing resources ensuring faster and efficient delivery of cargo to a future Mars Colony. Musk’s response to the incident was a tweet that said, “Rockets are tricky.”
SpaceX says that the rocket has been tested previously, but this time they wanted to push its limits harder, and that led to the technical snag.
It is important to understand that rocket science is hard, ergo the saying, it’s as tough as rocket science. Considering the fact that rocket technology is still in its basic stages, re-usability will surely take it forward. There have been malfunctions that have led to the loss of valuable human life. Space travel is the next frontier, and reaching new frontiers involves sacrifices, sometimes monetary and unfortunately sometimes, human life. Setbacks do happen but it’s necessary to learn from them and move on. Hopefully SpaceX team learns from its mistake and gives us our ride to Mars as soon as possible.
