Engineers are investigating another malfunction in SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket

SpaceX is Investigating a problem with the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage that caused it to re-enter the atmosphere and fall into the sea outside its intended disposal area after Saturday's launch. With a two-man crew heading to the International Space Station.

The upper stage failure apparently occurred after the Falcon 9 successfully deployed SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov on SpaceX's Crew-9 mission. Hague and Gorbunov arrived safely at the space station on Sunday to begin a five-month stay at the orbital research complex.

The Merlin vacuum engine of the Falcon 9 second stage was fired for more than six minutes to put the Crew Dragon spacecraft into orbit after liftoff from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral, Florida. The engine was supposed to be restarted later to direct the upper stage on a path back into Earth's atmosphere for disposal over the South Pacific, ensuring the rocket would not remain in orbit as a piece of space junk.

“Following today’s successful launch of Crew-9, the Falcon 9 second stage was placed in the ocean as planned, but suffered an indefinite deorbital burn.” SpaceX deployed on the X late Saturday night. “As a result, the second stage landed safely in the ocean, but outside the target area. We will resume launch after we better understand the root cause.”

Safety warnings issued to sailors and pilots before the launch indicated that the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage was supposed to fall somewhere in a narrow band running southwest to northeast in the South Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand. Most of the rocket was expected to burn up during reentry, but SpaceX is targeting a remote part of the ocean for disposal because some debris is likely to survive and reach the sea.

SpaceX did not release any further details about the upper stage malfunction. Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist and expert in spaceflight activity, Written on X The most likely failure mode that could result in re-entry is a “soft burn” of the Merlin vacuum motor. This would cause the missile to go off course and return to somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, northeast of the expected disposal area.

For the third time in three months

This is the third time SpaceX has parked a Falcon 9 rocket in less than three months, ending an impressive string of flawless launches.

SpaceX's upper stage failed during World War II July 11: Launch of a group of 20 Starlink Internet satelliteswhich led to the payloads being stranded in a lower orbit than planned, which led to them re-entering the atmosphere and burning up. This was the first mission failure of the Falcon 9 rocket in 335 missions since 2016, an unparalleled record in the history of space launch vehicles.

Engineers attributed the problem to a crack in the “sensing line” of a pressure sensor connected to the vehicle's liquid oxygen system, which led to a liquid oxygen leak that prevented the rocket from completing the second burn of the upper stage engine. While Saturday's upper stage problem is still under investigation, it also arose on the second burn of the Merlin vacuum engine.