SpaceX7 Launch Explosion

I am sure you have heard about the explosion of the SpaceX rocket. Clearly it will take time to investigate what happened, to identify solutions to the problem and to determine how this will impact future schedules, including our pending ground control studies at NASA Ames or our spaceflight missions.
 
With respect to our science nomenclature, the lost SpaceX rocket was termed SpaceX7. This was the mission on which our original cell culture study was supposed to fly. However, due to a hardware biocompatibility issue, our cell culture studies had been delayed until the SpaceX13 mission scheduled for a February 2017 launch.
 
It is unclear at this time exactly what was lost with the explosion, but I believe the hardware for both of our spaceflights are not lost. We will keep you posted on how this tragedy impacts our timeline, but certainly this is a devastating loss for NASA, SpaceX and everyone in the space community.

Written by: Melissa