Elon Musk’s bid to transform the business of space launch suffered a severe setback yesterday when a SpaceX pilotless Falcon 9 rocket and a satellite were destroyed in an explosion on a launch pad in Florida.
The incident at Cape Canaveral marked the second time in little more than a year that SpaceX has lost one of its rockets. The company’s equipment is far cheaper to operate than those of United Launch Alliance, its main rival for prestigious US government business.
The explosion followed the mid-flight break-up on June 28 last year of a cargo flight bound for the International Space Station. Mr Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, the electric car company, said after that incident that SpaceX had become “complacent” about safety and pledged to learn from the incident.