SpaceX explosion – if in doubt, blame aliens

The spectacular explosion of SpaceX – the rocket carrying a Facebook Internet.org satellite – has yet to be explained, so we might as well blame it on aliens.

You can’t beat a high-profile non-natural disaster to get the internet buzzing and the conspiracy theorists have left their padded cells en masse to dine-out on this one. While rocket science is difficult to the point of cliché, there’s no way anyone is going to be happy with ‘sh*t happens’ as an explanation for the SpaceX rocket lurching from dormant phallus to hellish inferno in the blink of an eye.

To add fuel to the fire (sorry), SpaceX founder Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to say he hasn’t got a clue WTF happened and hasn’t ruled anything out, including sabotage. He’s keen for anyone with any footage to get in touch to help with the investigation but in so doing has also rolled out the red carpet to the army of nut-jobs that prowl the internet like lost souls in purgatory.

Musk is especially intrigued by a lesser bang that immediately preceded the explosion, tweeting “Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off. May come from rocket or something else.” Something else? Come on Elon, say it! You can hear the noise (bear in mind the sound is around 10 seconds delayed by the distance of the microphone from the rocket) at 1:18 in the video below.

Such were the strength of the conspiracy theories doing the rounds that the Daily Express took precious time away from Princess Diana paranoia to spend quality time with this one. The internet has said what Musk dare not – it was aliens – and specifically ones with a grudge against Facebook, possibly enraged by having their WhatsApp data pimped out.

As the story explores, the alien angle has been stoked, as if the absence of another explanation wasn’t enough by itself, by the sighting of an apparent UFO flying just over the rocket at exactly the moment the explosion happened. As you can see in the slow motion video below the evidence is pretty compelling, lacking only conspicuous laser beams and lurking motherships to make it utterly conclusive. Someone even asked Musk specifically if he thinks something hit the rocket and he answered “We have not ruled that out.”

This isn’t the first SpaceX calamity. When one broke up in the atmosphere last year some people blamed aerospace incumbents and their special anti-rocket lasers. Musk has chosen not to stoke Twitter any further on the matter but seems no closer to a non-alien explanation. For insurance purposes it’s probably a good one to stick with as aliens are inexplicably overlooked in most policies.