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SpaceX’s prolific Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded for the second time in two months after federal regulators said they wanted to review a wayward landing attempt that occurred Wednesday morning.
That makes the Falcon 9 rocket unable to fly with two key human spaceflight missions on the horizon.
The company is slated to launch a daring mission called Polaris Dawn as soon as this week, and next month it’s expected to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on Crew-9, a mission that will also bring home Boeing Starliner’s test flight astronauts, who have been in limbo on the orbiting laboratory since the first leg of their journey in early June.
Wednesday’s incident involved the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket — or the bottommost portion that gives the first burst of power at liftoff — which failed to land upright on a seafaring platform and exploded. The overall mission, however, appeared to go off without a hitch, safely delivering a batch of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit.
Still, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said it would investigate the mishap.
“The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 28,” the FAA said Wednesday in a statement. “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation.”
Landing the first-stage booster is a signature SpaceX move. Other rockets flying today typically discard their first stage boosters after flight. SpaceX, however, aims to recover and refurbish its Falcon 9 boosters as often as possible to save money.
SpaceX does not typically experience delays or lengthy groundings after losing a booster, as the loss does not affect the success of the primary mission.
Wednesday’s announcement, however, could greatly complicate SpaceX’s plans to get Polaris Dawn off the ground. That mission, carrying a four-person crew, was set to take off early this morning, but was delayed because of weather forecasts. The company would have been able to try again as soon as Friday.
It’s not clear how long the Falcon 9 will remain grounded. After the mishap in July, the rocket was taken out of flight for a couple of weeks.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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