SpaceX reveals cause of September explosion

SpaceX has finally revealed what caused one of the company's Falcon 9 rockets to explode on the launch pad on Sept. 1, 2016, also destroying Israel's Amos 6 communications satellite that the rocket was taking into orbit.

In a report released Monday morning, SpaceX says it was joined by multiple agencies -- including the U.S. Air Force, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and NASA -- in combing through "3,000 channels of video and telemetry data" focusing on a 93-millisecond interval from "the first sign of anomalous data to the loss of the second stage" that resulted in total loss of the rocket.

According to SpaceX's report, the conclusion reached was:

...one of the three composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) inside the second stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank failed. Specifically, the investigation team concluded the failure was likely due to the accumulation of oxygen between the COPV liner and overwrap in a void or a buckle in the liner, leading to ignition and the subsequent failure of the COPV.

A Falcon 9 rocket uses those COPVs to store cold helium to maintain tank pressure. COPVs recovered at the explosion site showed buckles between the aluminum inner liner and carbon overwrap each COPV has.

Investigators believe that liquid oxygen pooled here and was trapped when the COPVs were pressurized, making it more likely for friction to ignite the trapped oxygen. Additionally, investigators believe that when that cold helium was loaded, its temperature was cold enough to create solid oxygen, making ignition more likely.

The Amos 6 satellite, destroyed on board, was going to be leased by Facebook to provide internet access to sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report from space industry publication Space News. 

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One other tidbit in Monday's report: SpaceX also announced the date for its next launch, the first since that Sept. 1 explosion, and it's coming up fast. The company will launch a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, Jan. 8, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to take the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation into orbit.