On August 9, the experimental Morpheus aircraft crashed during a test flight. In the NASA space center, on the territory of which this accident occurred, experts are trying to establish the exact reasons for what happened.
The Morpheus aircraft weighing about 1000 kg was intended to test the latest engines operating on oxygen and methane (environmentally friendly products), for new landing technologies, vertical takeoff and maneuvering of spaceships. Morpheus was created by specialists from the Kennedy Center and the private space company Armadillo Aerospace in Florida and it was assumed that it would be used to create new lander for flights to other planets. Over the past two years, about $ 7 million has been invested in this project.
Last week, this rocket aircraft successfully passed the first statistical tests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. And on Thursday, August 9, when the first attempt to test the module in a free environment was planned, the rocket platform overturned at the time of takeoff, the wreckage of the device caught fire, then an explosion occurred. In the crash, none of the specialists who watched the flight of Morpheus were injured, and the resulting fire was quickly extinguished by a team of firefighters.
To date, NASA experts are studying the data recorded during the tests, and are trying to establish the exact cause of the incident, which would help to avoid the repetition of such accidents in the future. It is already known that at the time of takeoff, one of the devices was disconnected from the rocket vehicle, due to which Morpheus could not go into a stable flight.
According to a statement published on the space center's website, such accidents are an integral part of the creation of any complex spacecraft. Thanks to them, engineers receive the information that later helps to avoid such crashes and improve the performance of the systems being produced.
