July 20--SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that investigators believed that the company's rocket disintegrated last month after a steel strut purchased from a subcontractor snapped.
Musk said the investigation's preliminary conclusions point to the strut, which was holding down one of many helium bottles on the rocket's second stage, where the explosion occurred.
"This was a purchased part," Musk said. "We just install it at SpaceX."
The Hawthorne-based company's rockets are grounded as the investigation continues into what caused the unmanned ship carrying supplies to the International Space Station to disintegrate just two minutes after liftoff June 28.
Musk said Monday that with the probe's early findings he believed the failure would delay the company's ambitious launch schedule by "only a few months."
He said that SpaceX would now test every strut used on each rocket and not just depend on the subcontractor's certification of their strength. He declined to name the strut supplier.
Although he blamed a subcontractor, Musk said that he believed SpaceX employees had become complacent about quality control because of the firm's repeated successes in recent years.
When the company's last rocket failed in 2008, he said, the company had just 500 employees. Now it has 4,000 workers.
"Most people at the company today had only ever seen success," Musk said.
Before every launch, Musk said, he sends a companywide email asking employees to contact him immediately if they know of any reason to delay the flight -- even if their manager would not approve.
"The 20th time I send that email it just seems like it's Elon being paranoid again," he said.
SpaceX currently has orders for almost 50 launches -- including from NASA, the Air Force, foreign governments and commercial satellite companies. The launch work is worth more than $7 billion, the company said in recent congressional testimony.
Musk said Monday that he believed the delay in the launch schedule would cost the company "hundreds of millions probably."
But so far, no customer has left for another launch provider, he said.
"Every one of our customers has been supportive," he said.
UPDATE
2:07 p.m.: This article has been updated throughout with information from the news conference.
This article was first published at 6 a.m.
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