SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded once more after the car’s second stage didn’t come down within the anticipated space of the ocean, following an in any other case profitable mission that delivered a Dragon capsule and its crew to orbit.
“We will resume launching as soon as we higher perceive root trigger,” the corporate mentioned in a press release posted to X.
The Crew-9 mission, which carried NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to orbit, launched on Saturday. (Two seats have been left empty to make sure the 2 Boeing Starliner astronauts might return on the capsule in February.) Hague and Gorbunov arrived safely on the International Space Station early Sunday night.
While crucial a part of the mission was carried out with no hitch, the problem that occurred through the second stage’s deorbit burn marks the third time in three months that the Falcon 9 has skilled an anomaly. The deorbit burn is a exactly focused firing of the stage’s single Merlin Vacuum engine to make sure any particles from reentry lands in a particular zone within the ocean.
The different two points appeared in July and August. In the primary occasion on July 11, a liquid oxygen leak sprung up within the insulation surrounding the second stage’s engine throughout a routine Starlink launch, which led to the lack of the 20 satellites on board. Later, on August 28, the booster got here down sizzling in its try to land on a SpaceX touchdown drone ship and was destroyed on impression.
These haven’t grounded the Falcon 9 for lengthy; after the problem with the liquid oxygen leak in July, SpaceX resumed flying the rocket after simply two weeks. SpaceX mentioned it had recognized the reason for the leak — a cracked line linked to the strain sensor — and took various steps to make sure the problem didn’t recur. The touchdown anomaly in August led to no pause in missions in any respect because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration allowed the corporate to proceed with launches whereas the investigation was underway.
This most up-to-date problem might delay some crucial upcoming missions, notably the European Space Agency’s Hera mission to review asteroids on October 7 and NASA’s Europa clipper mission to the Jupiter moon of the identical identify on October 10. Both missions have tight launch home windows that shut by the top of the month. A Falcon 9 mission scheduled to launch 20 web satellites for Eutelsat OneWeb scheduled for final night time was additionally delayed.
