CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX has confirmed that its crew capsule was destroyed in ground testing two weeks ago.
A company vice president told reporters Thursday it's too soon to know what went wrong during the April 20 test or whether the capsule's March space flight contributed to the failure. Flames engulfed the capsule a half second before the launch-abort thrusters were to fire.
SpaceX still cannot access the test stand at Cape Canaveral because of toxic fuel contamination.
Vice President Hans Koenigsmann said the cargo version of the Dragon capsule, meanwhile, is safe to fly to the International Space Station.
“There was an anomaly and the vehicle was destroyed” - @SpaceX confirms what many suspected following #CrewDragon explosion the other weekend during testing at Cape Canaveral. #spacex says still too early to determine cause of explosion @news6wkmg @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/XWqM7upPOi
— James Sparvero (@News6James) May 2, 2019
SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon rocket with station supplies early Friday morning. The flight was delayed by a power problem that occurred at the station Monday and was fixed Thursday.
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