The head of ULA said that the explosion of the SpaceX rocket could disrupt their flight schedule for the next 9-12 months

The head of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), Tori Bruno, said that the explosion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to SpaceX could disrupt their flight schedule for the next 9-12 months in preparation for the launch and testing of systems.

The emphasis is on the fact that while the proceedings are being conducted and the causes of the accident are being identified, Musk and his company will be "chained to the ground." Plus, the repair will require the launch pad itself, along with the tower.
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It is worth noting that ULA is a direct competitor of SpaceX and the incident at Cape Canaveral is partly in the hands of this organization.

According to Bruno, the investigation of the incident may take Mask’s company for at least several months, after which it will be necessary to eliminate the causes of the malfunction.

It was previously reported that the problem arose in the upper stage of the tank with oxygen. In a more detailed analysis of the possible causes of the explosion from the user lozga the following options are indicated:

• component leakage and short circuit;
• violation of the purity of the oxygen lines;
• leakage from the ignition system;
• erroneous firing system operation.

In the meantime, SpaceX specialists are studying data from cameras and telemetry and there have been no final official statements by company representatives about the causes of the explosion.

Recall, the explosion of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle took place on September 1, at about 4:30 pm Moscow time. Then a team of engineers and technicians conducted pre-launch tests of all systems, and the rocket itself was already equipped with a payload in the form of an Israeli communications satellite Amos-6 with a cost of $ 200 million, which was to replace the already exhausted Amos-2 satellite in orbit.

Falcon 9 itself is not the only serious loss. If in the case of cargoes of the ISS there is always a backup option, then Amos-6 was a unique device. Its predecessor Amos-2 provides coverage in mid-latitudes and developed its resource in 2015, but then the Amos-6 launch was postponed to September 2016.

The company also claimed the satellite frequencies for the development of its own project Internet.org, a startup whose goal is to provide access to the Internet in remote and remote regions of the planet.

It is noteworthy that the Israelis had previously launched Amos satellites, mainly from the Baikonur cosmodrome (the last Amos satellite was successfully brought into orbit by the Proton-M carrier rocket). But the first launch of a new contractor did not even take place.

The incident may have a negative impact on private start-ups, however, this area is too young to give unambiguous estimates. No one knows how quickly a “private trader” can cope with problems of this kind in comparison with the public sector, which in any country is famous for its slowness. In any case, Mask and his company are now faced with the task of finding out the causes of the incident as quickly as possible and resolving any problems / eliminating the possibility of similar incidents in the future.

The accident caused serious reputational damage to the company. The Falcon 9, which is being prepared for launch, was completely new, and the company is already planning to reuse the returned used stages next year. It may happen that potential customers will doubt the safety of their cargoes, even if SpaceX missiles that did not fly before, periodically explode at various stages (in 2015, one of the missiles that was supposed to deliver cargo to the ISS exploded after launching into Earth's atmosphere).