This screenshot is taken from a handout video released on July 12, 2024, which shows SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launching satellites into orbit after taking off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.
SpaceX | Via Reuters
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket suffered an in-flight malfunction and has been grounded pending an investigation into the accident, a rare misfire for the company’s workhorse rocket.
The mission, dubbed “Starlink Group 9-3,” launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday night, carrying 20 satellites to low-Earth orbit.
The rocket’s lower first stage, or booster, performed as expected before returning to land. But the SpaceX CEO said the rocket’s second upper stage failed to reignite its engines as planned and was destroyed. Musk comfirmed.
Musk wrote in a post on social media: “The upper stage restarted to increase the perigee, causing the engine to experience RUD, the cause is currently unknown.” RUD, or “rapid unplanned disassembly” is a term used by SpaceX to refer to an explosion or explosion. term for a disruptive event. The company said in a later update that the engine failure was caused by a second-stage liquid oxygen leak.
Federal regulators confirmed that Falcon 9 rockets will be grounded until the Federal Aviation Administration approves SpaceX’s investigation into the incident.
“The FAA will be involved every step of the investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions,” the agency said in a statement to CNBC.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as seen from Los Angeles on March 18, 2024 flew into space carrying the payload of 22 Starlink network satellites after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The Starlink mission is Falcon 9’s 69th launch this year – the company is averaging one launch every two to three days in 2024 – but the investigation could delay launches planned in the coming weeks, including two crewed missions: Private Polaris Dawn and NASA’s Crew-9.
SpaceX still deployed 20 Starlink satellites, but noted that a second-stage engine failure meant the satellites were in a “lower than expected orbit.” In an update Friday afternoon, the company said it was in contact with 10 of the satellites in an attempt to use thrusters on the satellites to climb higher in orbit.
Despite attempts at recovery, SpaceX confirmed that the “enormous high drag environment” meant the satellite would not be recovered due to being in the wrong lower orbit. These 20 satellites will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
“They do not pose a risk to other satellites in orbit or to public safety,” the company wrote in a statement on its website.
On February 14, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on mission USSF-124 for the U.S. Space Force and Missile Defense Agency.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
Falcon 9 has enjoyed unparalleled success for nearly a decade, having conducted more than 300 consecutive successful orbital launches since a flight failure during NASA’s CRS-7 cargo mission in June 2015.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has launched a total of 354 missions into orbit, of which more than 300 successfully landed, and the rocket booster was reused more than 280 times.
