NASA releases video of Falcon 9 explosion

After a US resupply rocket detonated post-launch on Sunday, NASA has released a video of the incident on Twitter. Officials however, are still unsure of what caused the Falcon 9 rocket to explode.

"This was a blow to us. We lost a lot of research equipment on this flight," NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier told a press debriefing. The explosion is also a setback for SpaceX, the space technology company, owned by Elon Musk, which has been attempting to compete with United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Investigations will now apparently keep other Falcon 9 rockets grounded for "a number of months".

According to Elon Musk, it's likely there was a problem before the first stage shutdown.

There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015

The company had hoped to use the first stage engine, expectd to be discarded post-launch, in an innovative landing sequence test, as part of plans to cut costs by reusing engine pieces.

.@SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched at 10:21am ET. After liftoff, the launch vehicle failed. [replay] #SpaceX #ISS https://t.co/eeFWm8VqBZ

— NASA (@NASA) June 28, 2015