Mars-bound billionaire Elon Musk puts brakes on mission to shoot humans into space after THAT massive explosion
SPACE X has slammed the brakes on a manned mission to space after its recyclable rocket burst into a massive fireball on the launch pad.
The space agency – fronted by billionaire playboy and Tesla founder Elon Musk – suffered a catastrophic blow when his Dragon capsule exploded at Cape Canaveral in September.
Musk had been planning to shoot the astronauts into space as part of a Nasa mission which would put the US at the forefront of space travel once more.
And it was an important step toward his dream of creating a human colony on Mars.
But he admitted on Monday that the crewed flight will not take off until 2018.
Space X’s rocket technology has come under scrutiny after it was reported that its rockets would be fuelled with its astronauts still inside – something of a no-no among space boffs.
Speaking following the disaster, Thomas Stafford, a former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force general, condemned the fuelling methods reportedly being used to shave time and money off Space launches.
He said: “Everybody there, and particularly the people who had experience over the years, said nobody is ever near the pad when they fuel a booster.”
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SpaceX had planned to launch its first Dragon capsule with a human crew on board in the new year, in collaboration with Nasa.
It said it needed more time for “assessment and implementations” regarding its “designs, systems and processes” following the explosion earlier this year.
It’s the latest blow for Elon Musk after he lost a promising satellite contract following the explosion.
He was publically slammed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, too.
Musk’s doomed rocket was carrying his £150million satellite to provide internet access in remote Africa when it exploded.
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