SpaceX rocket failure highlights need for multiple launch options: 'Falcon 9 is not invulnerable'

White frost-like material builds up around a cone-shaped rocket nozzle as it glows orange.

It's eerily quiet on the spaceflight front.

In the past two weeks, there has been just a single orbital launch — that of a Chinese Long March 4B rocket, which lofted the Gaofen-11 05 Earth-observation satellite on July 18.