The team in charge of debunking the anomaly that led to the loss of a Falcon 9 rocket and its payload on Sept. 1 is making steady progress in its activity.
Since the moment of the incident, teams from SpaceX, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Air Force, along with industry experts, have carried out a highly methodological investigation, using fault tree analysis to take into consideration all the possible causes that led to the accident at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Specialists at SpaceX have carried out tests in an attempt to replicate, as accurately as possible, the conditions that could have caused the misfortune.
The fault tree has led the investigation team to possible outcomes in their research. In their previous statements, SpaceX noted that the investigation was primarily concerned with "a breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank."
Although the company hasn't managed to confirm the root cause that may have led to this yet, the team's attention now falls on one of the three composite overwrapped pressure vessels inside the liquid oxygen tank.
Extensive tests executed in Texas led the SpaceX investigation team to the conclusion that helium loading conditions alone could be used to recreate a COPV failure, affecting the pressure and the temperature of the loaded helium.
The team's efforts are now going to be divided into two. The first area of interest is finding the precise root cause responsible for the mishap, and the second one is developing an improved helium loading series of conditions, allowing the team to trust the Falcon 9, and load it again.
Because of the progress in the investigation, the tests in the Texas facility will be resumed in a matter of days, while team efforts will also focus on finalizing the investigation. The team's purpose is to manage to continue with other launches by the end of 2016.
"This is an important milestone on the path to returning to flight," noted the SpaceX statement.
On Sept. 1, the Falcon 9 rocket along with its payload were lost. The standard procedures investigating the causes of the accident have been underway since then. Identifying the main cause of the mishap as related to the helium load, and not a matter of design or something more intrinsic to the vehicle, gives the team more hope that flights will be resumed in just a matter of months.
The Falcon 9 is a family of launch vehicles designed and manufactured by SpaceX. Each is a two-stage rocket and has nine first-stage engines. Its purpose is to safely transport satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Falcon 9 was the first rocket to have been entirely developed into the 21st century, so its main purpose to serve was reliability.
The first contract it had was with NASA, covering the delivery of the ISS under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. SpaceX then became the first commercial company to visit the International Space Station, when Falcon 9 delivered the Dragon into orbit for the appointment with the ISS in 2012.
