A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying an uncrewed capsule filled with supplies for the International Space Station appears to have disintegrated shortly after launch on Sunday.
The rocket's flight seemed normal when it took off from the launch pad in good weather, but shortly after taking to the skies, it broke apart in mid-air, according to NASA. SpaceX is in the process of assembling a team to "put together what we do know at this point," NASA spokesman George Diller said during a NASA TV webcast. Mission controllers lost contact with the Falcon 9 a little more than two minutes after launch.
"At this point, it's not exactly clear to the launch team what happened," Diller added.
This marks the Falcon 9's first failure in 19 launches. (Today is also SpaceX founder Elon Musk's birthday.)
Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015
There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015
Sunday's incident also marks the third time that an ISS cargo vehicle has failed to reach the space station since October 2014.
Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket exploded just after liftoff in Virginia last year during a supply run to the ISS. And earlier this year, Russia's Progress resupply craft didn't make it to the orbiting outpost when it suffered a failure, and reentered Earth's atmosphere after making it to space.
Currently, another Progress vehicle is expected to launch on a cargo mission to the ISS on Friday, with a Japanese cargo vessel scheduled to launch with fresh supplies in August.
Rocket explosion - very sorry to see @SpaceX launch failure. Serious ramifications for Space Station resupply. Good thing it's international— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 28, 2015
The Falcon 9 was carrying a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft packed with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies for the space station when it seemed to explode. The fate of the Dragon capsule is not yet known.
This was SpaceX's seventh official cargo mission using Dragon and Falcon 9 on a trip to the ISS. Dragon was carrying food, experiments and other supplies, including the first of two docking adaptors that could be used to allow commercial crew vehicles built by Boeing and SpaceX to dock with and deliver astronauts to the space station by 2017.
NASA will host a news conference at 12:30 p.m. ET to update the public and members of the media with any new information about Sunday's rocket failure. You can watch it live on NASA TV.
UPDATED 11:40 a.m. EDT: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the NASA spokesman as Mike Curie. The NASA TV announcer was actually George Diller.