--- title: "Elon Musk Became Fixated on the Idea That a Sniper Shot His Rocket, Causing It to Explode" description: "After a Falcon 9 rocket exploded in 2016, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk became suspicious that a \"sniper\" on the roof of a rival's building shot it." date: "2025-05-05" modified: "2025-05-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-sniper-rocket-explode" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "crew dragon" - "elon musk" - "falcon 9" - "SpaceX" --- # Elon Musk Became Fixated on the Idea That a Sniper Shot His Rocket, Causing It to Explode ![After a Falcon 9 rocket exploded in 2016, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk became suspicious that a "sniper" on the roof of a rival's building shot it.]() *\Image: US Launch Report via YouTube\* After a Falcon 9 rocket exploded violently and unexpectedly on the launch pad in 2016, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk became suspicious that the cause was something almost unimaginably dramatic: a "sniper" on the roof of a rival's building. Footage of the event [shows]() the rocket erupting into a gigantic ball of fire in an instant, reducing the mounted Amos-6 Israeli communications satellite into scorched debris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BgJEXQkjNQ&t=68s A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed with the Federal Aviation Administration [by *Ars Technica*'s Eric Berger]() around two years ago has now revealed that SpaceX engineers thoroughly investigated whether a shooter could've caused the rocket to rupture and explode. According to Berger, Musk — who was asleep at his home in California when the blast occurred — immediately gravitated toward the theory himself, perhaps giving a glimpse of what's now become his [dominantly paranoid worldview](). The space firm investigated whether the round could've been shot by a sniper from the roof of a building — which belonged to rival United Launch Alliance (ULA) — roughly a mile away from the launch pad. Engineers even tried to shoot tanks themselves to see if they could recreate the incident. And per Berger's FOIA, even the FBI got involved, highlighting the significance of SpaceX's second rocket failure in a little more than a year, around the time when NASA made big investments in the company to establish a new way to deliver its astronauts to the International Space Station. The incident also underlines how far Musk is willing to go to [blame anyone except himself]() — and his penchant for embracing outlandish conspiracy theories, something for which he has [garnered an increasing reputation]() in recent years. However, the investigation ultimately concluded that no gunman was involved and that SpaceX had loaded the rocket's pressurized tanks with super-chilled helium too quickly. Regardless, the timing of the explosion couldn't have been worse. In 2016, SpaceX's rivalry with the ULA, which at the time was launching far more rockets, was extremely heated. Musk [sued the US Air Force in April 2014](), accusing it of acting anti-competitively and awarding the ULA launch contracts unfairly. All eyes were on SpaceX, which was furiously working on its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The optics weren't great, with NASA [naming four astronauts]() to its "commercial crew" weeks after the first Falcon 9 explosion in the summer of 2015. The massive blast the following year likely didn't help matters. To seemingly try to clear his and SpaceX's name, Musk had personally directed the company to make a big fuss out of the since-discredited "sniper" theory. Nonetheless, even the FBI found "no indications to suggest that sabotage or any other criminal activity played a role in the September 1 Falcon 9 explosion," according to an October 2016 letter obtained by Berger. In the end SpaceX had the last laugh, though, surpassing the ULA's yearly number of rocket launches in 2017 and [becoming the first private company]() to transport astronauts to the Space Station in 2019. **More on SpaceX:** *[Elon Musk Is Getting Huge New Government Deals While Everything Else Is Getting Slashed]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()