SpaceX Rocket Engine Explodes During Testing At McGregor Texas Facility

Less than two weeks before its next scheduled launch SpaceX suffered a setback. The company was testing a rocket engine on Sunday when the engine reportedly exploded at the McGregor, Texas facility, the Washington Post reported.

The Merlin engine used in the company’s Falcon 9 rockets was undergoing a "qualification test" before being used for one of the rockets. Luckily, nobody was injured when the rocket exploded and now the company is conducting a thorough investigation into what caused the malfunction, according to the Washington Post.

The company is scheduled to launch one of its Falcon 9 rockets next week for the United States government. The rocket will be carrying a Zuma payload but there is very little further information available about the scheduled launch so far. The launch is scheduled to take place at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and a spokesperson told the Post that there are no current plans to delay or change the launch manifest.

This isn’t the first time a SpaceX rocket or engine has blown up. In 2015 a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a payload bound for the International Space Station exploded a few minutes after liftoff, destroying the cargo on board but not harming anyone.

The following year, another rocket exploded but this time it blew up on the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center and left Launch Pad 40 severely damaged. The pad has yet to reopen. The rocket exploded during a routine test but destroyed the engine, rocket and the payload that it was due to launch to space a few days later. That explosion was "was likely due to the accumulation of oxygen between the COPV liner and overwrap in a void or a buckle in the liner, leading to ignition and the subsequent failure of the COPV," SpaceX concluded several months after the explosion occurred.

It’s currently unclear what caused the Sunday explosion but an investigation into the malfunction is underway, according to the Post. In addition to launches that have exploded on the pad or in the air, SpaceX has had a number of rockets that have wiped out or exploded during attempted recoveries.

It’s so far been a record-breaking year for SpaceX that has launched more Falcon 9 rocket than it has in any year prior. Additionally, there is a launch of the Falcon Heavy in the works for the company set for sometime in December, according to the launch schedule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX had not released a statement on its website regarding the explosion. International Business Times reached out to the company but did not receive a response regarding further information about the explosion by the time that this article was published.