SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is back on the ground because its second stage did not land in the ocean where it was supposed to
The mission, which sent a Dragon capsule and its crew into orbit, was otherwise successful.
There was a statement on X from the company that said, “We will resume launching once we better understand root cause.”
On Saturday, the Crew-9 mission began. Its goal was to send NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov into space. Two seats were left free so that the two astronauts on the Boeing Starliner could return on the capsule in February. Hague and Gorbunov got to the International Space Station early Sunday evening and were safe.
While the most important part of the mission went off without a hitch, the problem that happened during the deorbit burn of the second stage is the third time in three months that something has gone wrong with the Falcon 9. The deorbit burn is a very accurate firing of the stage’s single Merlin Vacuum engine to make sure that any debris from reentry lands in a certain area of the ocean.
The other two issues came out in August and July. First, on July 11, during a normal Starlink launch, a liquid oxygen leak appeared in the insulation around the second stage’s engine. This caused the 20 satellites on board to be lost. Later, on August 28, the rocket crashed when it tried to land on a SpaceX landing drone ship. It was totally destroyed when it hit the surface.
These problems haven’t kept the Falcon 9 from flying for long. After the problem with the liquid oxygen leak in July, SpaceX got the rocket back in the air in just two weeks.
SpaceX said it had found the leak’s source—a broken line attached to the pressure sensor—and taken several steps to make sure it wouldn’t happen again. There was a problem with landing in August, but missions didn’t stop at all because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration let the company keep launching while the review went on.
This new problem could cause some important missions to be delayed, including the Hera mission from the European Space Agency to study asteroids on October 7 and the Europa clipper mission from NASA to the same-named moon of Jupiter on October 10. There are only a few days left to start both missions before the end of the month. The launch of 20 internet satellites for Eutelsat OneWeb by Falcon 9 was supposed to happen last night, but it was pushed back.