spacetoday.net: Falcon 9 return to flight a "couple" months away

Posted: Thu, Sep 3, 2015, 9:54 AM ET (1354 GMT)
Falcon 9 v1.1 launch of DSCOVR (NASA/KSC)

SpaceX expects to perform the next launch of its Falcon 9 rocket, and the first since a June failure, in a couple of months, company executives said this week. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said Monday that launch is likely a "couple of months" away, longer than the company originally expected as it takes time to perform thorough engineering reviews of the vehicle. The last Falcon 9 launch, on June 28, failed when a strut holding down a helium bottle in an upper stage propellant tank failed, causing the tank to overpressurize and burst. That next launch will also be the first of the "uprated thrust" version of the Falcon 9, with a 33% increase in performance over the existing Falcon 9 v1.1. The company has not disclosed who the customer will be for that return-to-flight mission.