SpaceX admits loss of spacecraft during testing

A test sample of the Crew Dragon manned spacecraft was completely destroyed during engine tests, admitted Elon Musk's SpaceX . This means that the Russian Soyuz will remain for some time the only means of delivering people to the International Space Station (ISS).

What happened

• On April 20, SpaceX conducted bench tests of the propulsion system for the Crew Dragon descent vehicle in emergency descent mode. The fact that they passed abnormally was shown by a photo of colored smoke over the test site, and later by a video of the explosion .
• The destroyed ship had previously flown to the ISS and returned to Earth in automatic mode.
• In hot pursuit, the company only confirmed that an “anomaly” had occurred during the tests. SpaceX, usually immediately talking about successes and failures, limited itself to an extremely brief release, Musk himself was silent. Only the day before, on May 2, the details were revealed by Vice President for Flight Safety Hans Koenigsmann.
• The accident happened at the stage of turning on the Crew Dragon main engines after starting the auxiliary ones. Pressure was applied to the system, and an explosion occurred during ignition.
• The descent vehicle was destroyed, but part of the fuel system survived. NASA does not give SpaceX specialists access to either the remnants of the vehicle or the test bench, because the toxic oxidizer - nitrogen tetroxide - remains under pressure.
• The cause of the accident is not yet clear, but the company assumes that it was caused by external causes, and does not leave hopes for a crewed launch to the ISS before the end of 2019.

What does it mean

A test failure means Crew Dragon's first launch to the ISS is likely to be delayed, writes CNN. NASA has already contracted two additional seats on the Russian Soyuz, one of them in 2020. It costs the US $80 million to get one astronaut to the ISS, "a fact very unpopular in Congress," the agency said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe4ee56aHSg