Earlier reports that Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket exploded in space might not be true. Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Musk announced over the weekend that the Falcon 9 rocket had gone up without a hitch. Then this morning there was a report from the SpaceTrack satellite tracking system which suggested that the rocket disintegrated when it hit orbit above Earth.
Report of an explosion on SpaceX rocket
According to SpaceTrack, there may have been some kind of explosion on Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket after it reached Earth’s orbit. Zarya, a blog which focuses on space flight, reported the information from SpaceTrack. However, there have been no confirmations about this information elsewhere.
After that report SpaceX told Business Insider that it had “no reason” to believe Musk’s rocket exploded in space. The company did say that “based on previous launch experiences” they know that early measurements from SpaceTrack “are not very accurate and sometimes mixed up.” The company also said it generally takes SpaceTrack “a few days” to sort everything out.
According to SpaceX, they still have a lot of data to comb through, and they’re not sure when they will be finished. However, they said they would release their own findings on the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket as soon as they have finished going through all of their data.
Data from SpaceTrack looks misleading
It’s easy to see why the information from SpaceTrack could be misleading. The tracking system reported 20 objects floating freely in a pattern suggesting an explosion after the Falcon 9 went up. The rocket was supposed to have six satellite combinations released, plus the body of the rocket and possibly a bit of debris. It seems pretty clear that there are other explanations for SpaceTrack’s findings. Until the official date from SpaceX comes out, we’ll just have to wait, but so far, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s Elon Musk appears to have another success under his belt.
