evidence: Individual failures, however, can remain surprising. That’s especially true when the failure takes place before the launch itself. Few people knew that a SpaceX Falcon 9 was on the pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, being prepared for a static fire test of the rocket’s nine first stage engines on the morning of Sep. 1. It’s a test largely unique to SpaceX, done a couple of days before launch, in this case of the Amos-6 communications satellite that was scheduled to launch in the early morning hours of September 3.