SpaceX’s Falcon 9 is pictured launching satellites into orbit after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US, in this screenshot taken from a flyer video released on July 12, 2024.
Spacex | Via Reuters
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded, pending an investigation into the incident, after an in-flight malfunction — a rare mishap for the company’s launch vehicle.
The mission, known as “Starlink Group 9-3,” launched from California’s Vandenberg Space Base on Thursday night and carried 20 satellites bound for low Earth orbit.
The rocket’s lower first stage, or booster, functioned as expected before returning to land. But the rocket’s upper second stage failed to reignite its engine as planned and was destroyed, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed.
“Restarting the upper stage to raise the perigee resulted in an engine RUD for currently unknown reasons,” Musk wrote in a social media post. RUD, or “rapid unplanned disassembly,” is a term SpaceX uses to refer to an explosive or catastrophic event. The company said in a later update that the engine failure was caused by a liquid oxygen leak in the second stage.
The Falcon 9 is grounded until the Federal Aviation Administration signs off on SpaceX’s investigation into the incident, the federal regulator confirmed.
“The FAA will participate in 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.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flies carrying a payload of 22 Starlink Internet satellites into space after liftoff from Vandenberg Space Base, as seen from Los Angeles on March 18, 2024.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The Starlink mission was the 69th Falcon 9 launch of the year — with the company averaging a crazy launch rate of every two to three days in 2024 — but the research will likely delay launches planned in the coming weeks, including two crewed missions: private Polaris Dawn and NASA’s Crew-9.
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SpaceX was still developing the 20 Starlink satellites, but noted that the second-stage engine failure meant the satellites were in a “lower orbit than intended.” In an update Friday afternoon, the company said it has made contact with 10 of the satellites in an effort to use the satellites on the boosters to climb higher into orbit.
Despite the recovery attempt, SpaceX has confirmed that the “extremely high drag environment” from the wrong, lower orbit means the satellites will not be recovered. The 20 satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up.
“They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety,” the company wrote in a statement on its website.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off on mission USSF-124 for the US Space Force and Missile Defense Agency at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on February 14, 2024.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
Falcon 9 has enjoyed unparalleled success for nearly a decade, recording more than 300 consecutive successful orbital launches since its previous in-flight failure in June 2015, during NASA’s CRS-7 cargo mission.
In total, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has launched 354 missions into orbit, with more than 300 of them having successful landings and resulting in the reuse of rocket boosters more than 280 times.
