In an Oct. 9 speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering here, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell suggested that the Sept. 1 accident prior to a planned static-fire test on the company's Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch pad was not a flaw in the vehicle's design.

"We're homing in on what happened," she said. "I think it's going to point not to a vehicle issue or an engineering design issue but more of a business process issue."

She didn't elaborate on what the potential issue or issues the company is examining as a potential cause for the failure, which the company has previously stated is linked to a "large breach" in the helium system in the rocket's second stage liquid oxygen tank. Speaking Oct. 5 at the Asia-Pacific Satellite Communications Council 2016 conference in Malaysia, Shotwell said it was unlikely there was a design flaw in the bottles used to store helium in the tank, but rather an "operations" issue.