After going eight years and more than 300 launches without a failure, SpaceX had a Falcon 9 rocket launch go awry, resulting in the expected loss of 20 Starlink satellites.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it would oversee an investigation into the anomaly, raising the prospect that dozens of launches could be delayed until the problem is identified and rectified. Update for July 27: SpaceX was able to resume Falcon 9 launches after the FAA ruled that no public safety issues were involved in the anomaly.
As many as 40 Falcon 9 launches are on tap between now and the end of the year — potentially including missions that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station and send the privately funded Polaris Dawn crew into orbit for the world’s first commercial spacewalk.
The problem cropped up during the July 11 launch of a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket’s first stage performed as expected, went through stage separation and returned to Earth for a successful touchdown on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.
“Falcon 9’s second stage performed its first burn nominally,” SpaceX said in a mission recap, “however, a liquid oxygen leak developed on the second stage.”
When the second-stage engine was relit to adjust the orbital parameters, it experienced an anomaly and couldn’t complete the burn. In a posting to his X social-media platform, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the engine went through a “RUD,” or rapid unscheduled disassembly.
The second stage was still able to deploy its batch of 20 satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband internet network. But those satellites were left in an orbit that was lower than planned, where they were subject to significant atmospheric drag.
“At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” SpaceX said. “As such, the satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise. They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety.”
The FAA said in a statement that it would require an investigation into the anomaly, aimed at determining its root cause and identifying corrective actions. The agency would have to approve SpaceX’s final report as well as any license modifications that would be required.
The FAA is also charged with determining when it’s safe for SpaceX to resume flights. Falcon 9 launches were delayed for six months after a failed launch in June 2015. And when a Falcon 9 suffered a launch-pad anomaly in September 2016, it took four months for SpaceX to get the FAA’s go-ahead for a return to flight.
Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, who is leading the Polaris Dawn space mission, gave SpaceX a vote of confidence in a posting to X. “I have no doubt they will arrive at a cause quickly and ensure the most cost-effective and reliable launch vehicle keeps delivering payload to orbit,” he wrote. “As for Polaris Dawn, we will fly whenever SpaceX is ready and with complete confidence in the rocket, spaceship and operations.”
A Falcon 9 rocket was due to launch Isaacman and three crewmates into orbit as early as July 31, for a mission that could last as long as five days. The mission aims to go into an unusually high 700-kilometer (435-mile) orbit to test the spacesuits that SpaceX has created for spacewalks, and demonstrate how extravehicular activities can be conducted from SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.
Falcon 9 rockets are also set to launch an uncrewed Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship to the International Space Station, and send NASA’s Crew-9 astronauts to the ISS in a Dragon capsule. Both those missions are scheduled for as early as next month, but both seem likely to launch later than that in the aftermath of this week’s anomaly.
SpaceX isn’t the only company that’s currently facing challenges relating to orbital access: Boeing’s Starliner space taxi and its two NASA crew members are still at the space station, waiting for the go-ahead to return to Earth. The departure has been held up for weeks while NASA and Boeing address concerns about Starliner’s propulsion system.