Many children look up into the night sky and wonder what it would be like if they could fly among them. What space travel would entail and could they really become astronauts? It may seem like glamorous work with a world of adventure to look forward to, but as the Falcon9 rocket from SpaceX recently proved, there is always a risk with heading out into space.

SpaceX has a contract worth $1.6 billion with NASA to run 12 resupply runs to the International Space Station. It has been using the Falcon9 rocket and Dragon capsule in the last six successful attempts. However in end June the seventh run was a disaster as it exploded within 3 minutes of the rocket being launched. There is still no news of what the investigation into the event has revealed.

The theory is that an over pressure event in the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank is what caused the accident to occur. No conclusive evidence has been forthcoming as yet. Till the root cause of the accident is identified SpaceX has grounded Falcon9.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, is highly optimistic that the problem will soon be traced and the Falcon9 will soar once more. The future of this science project is watched with bated breath by the entire scientific community.