Intelligence Board: What caused the SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion?

Board created by tschiller on Sept. 12, 2016.

On Sept 1, 2016, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the Cap Canaveral launchpad. SpaceX, NASA, the Air Force, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are investigating.

Aggregate View (All Evaluations) Aggregate Disagreement Board History		A foreign government or organization sabotaged the launch	A competitor sabotaged the launch	The explosion was a fluke	A SpaceX employee sabotaged the launch	An engineering mistake caused the explosion
Sept. 1, 2016 Footage shows a dark object passing by the tip of the rocket just before the explosion	Evaluate	Consistent	Consistent	Consistent	Consistent	Inconsistent
Images show a white spot on the roof of a building of a competitor, ULA, with a clear line of sight to the launch pad	Evaluate	Consistent	Consistent	Neutral	Inconsistent	Neutral
Sept. 1, 2016 The rocket was carrying the AMOS-6 satellite. The satellite was owned by Spacecom and was to be used by Facebook and Eutelsat to provide internet access to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.	Evaluate	Consistent	Consistent	N/A	Neutral	N/A
Sept. 1, 2016 The explosion happened during a routine filling operation	Evaluate	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Consistent
Sept. 1, 2016 A bang occurred a few seconds before the fireball	Evaluate	Consistent	Consistent	Consistent	Consistent	Consistent
Sept. 1, 2016 The anomaly originated around the upper stage oxygen tank	Evaluate	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
Sept. 30, 2016 Air Force investigators inspected the roof where a white spot was seen, but didn't find anything connected to the explosion	Evaluate	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
A large breach occurred in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank	Evaluate	Neutral	No Assessments	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
The explosion took place over the course of less than 1/10th of a second	Evaluate	Neutral	No Assessments	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral

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