SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches halted as two key human spaceflight missions approach

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded for the second time in two months after federal regulators said they wanted to review a failed landing attempt that occurred Wednesday morning.

This makes the Falcon 9 rocket unable to fly with two crewed space missions on the horizon.

The company is set to launch a daring mission called Polaris Dawn this week, and next month it is expected to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Crew-9, a mission that will also return the Boeing Starliner test crew home after months of rotation. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been in limbo at the orbiting lab since their Starliner flight in early June.

Wednesday’s incident involved the Falcon 9’s first stage — or the lower part that provides the initial burst of energy at liftoff — which failed to land straight on an offshore platform and exploded. However, the overall mission appeared to go off without a hitch, safely delivering a batch of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

However, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said it would investigate the incident.

“The Federal Aviation Administration is aware of an anomaly during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida on August 28,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement Wednesday. “The incident involved the failure of a Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a drone ship at sea. No public injuries or property damage were reported. The FAA is requesting an investigation.”

Landing the first-stage booster is a unique move for SpaceX. Other rockets flying today typically jettison the first-stage booster after launch. However, SpaceX aims to recover and refurbish the first-stage booster as much as possible to save money.

SpaceX typically does not experience long delays or shutdowns after losing a booster, because the loss does not affect the success of the primary mission.

But Wednesday’s announcement could complicate SpaceX’s plans to launch the Polaris Dawn spacecraft. The mission, carrying a crew of four, was scheduled to launch early this morning but was delayed by weather forecasts. The company could have tried again on Friday.

It's not clear how long the Falcon 9 will remain grounded. After the July accident, the rocket was grounded for two weeks.

In contrast to Wednesday's accident, the Falcon 9 failure last July involved the rocket's second stage.

A Falcon 9 rocket had launched a batch of Starlink satellites from California on July 11 shortly before the anomaly occurred.

The first stage of the mission appeared to go smoothly, as the Falcon 9 used its first-stage booster — the lower part of the rocket that contains nine engines that provide the initial burst of power at liftoff — to propel itself into space.

But the second stage of the rocket, which was designed to launch after the first stage fell and power the satellites to their final destination in orbit, unexpectedly failed.

SpaceX later revealed that there was an oxygen leak in the second stage. (Liquid oxygen, or LOX, is typically used as an oxidizer or fuel for rockets.) This led to what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at one point called a “RUD” — or “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” a phrase SpaceX often uses to refer to an explosion.

Two weeks after that incident, the FAA determined there were no “public safety issues” and cleared SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to return to flight.

The company determined the leak was caused by a crack in a line connected to a pressure sensor, which had suffered some wear and tear from engine vibrations and the fact that the clamp that was supposed to hold it in place had come loose. The oxygen leak caused “overcooling” of the engine parts, leaving the rocket without enough fuel to burn properly, SpaceX Dragon mission director Sarah Walker said during a July 26 press briefing.

The company opted to implement a temporary fix to the issue by removing the affected pressure sensor and relying on data from other devices.

SpaceX confirmed on Wednesday that its latest Starlink flight had no problems with Phase 2“The Falcon 9 upper stage has reached a regular orbit after its second burn,” he wrote.

But the company also Added It will abandon its second Starlink mission launch attempt overnight to allow its engineers to investigate why the first-stage booster did not land properly.

“Retreat from our second position @starlink “Tonight’s launch will give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch,” according to a SpaceX post on X. “A new target launch date will be shared as soon as it is available.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.