The issue was earlier reported by Florida Today, which said orange smoke was seen rising above SpaceX’s facilities, and that the anomaly was contained with no injuries.
“THIS IS WHY WE TEST”
“The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand,” the company said in a statement. SpaceX said its teams are investigating and are working closely with US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) partners.
“NASA has been notified about the results of the SpaceX Static Fire Test and the anomaly that occurred during the final test,” its administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a tweet here. “This is why we test. We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward with our Commercial Crew Program,” he added.
In March, the privately owned SpaceX successfully completed its mission of sending an unmanned capsule to the International Space Station and returned safely to Earth, a mission seen as crucial to NASA’s plans to resume human space flight from US soil.
SpaceX’s first crewed test flight is slated to launch in July with US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.