The FAA has grounded SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for the second time in less than two months following a failed booster landing attempt during the Starlink 8-6 mission.
Space Flight Now Reports SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after its first stage booster hard landed during the Starlink 8-6 mission on August 28. The booster, which had completed a record 23 successful flights, disappeared in a fireball on the deck of the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas,” which was anchored in the Atlantic Ocean about 250 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina.
This is the end #SpaceXBooster 1062 has just completed its record-breaking 23rd flight. We can see that the rear right landing gear support has somehow broken. It doesn't look like the landing was rough. What's going on with A Shortfall of Gravitas?
It's amazing how rare such occurrences are.
Goodbye 1062! https://t.co/s2fnTeuvce pic.twitter.com/7siYRck2Wb— Marcus House (@MarcusHouse) August 28, 2024
The FAA said in a statement Wednesday that while no public injuries or property damage were reported, it is seeking an investigation into the incident. This is the second time in less than two months that the FAA has ordered a SpaceX rocket grounding, having made a similar declaration on July 12 when the Falcon 9 upper stage failed during the Starlink 9-3 mission, resulting in the loss of 20 satellites.
SpaceX Vice President of Falcon Launch Vehicles John Edwards expressed sadness over the loss of the booster in a social media post, saying, “Losing a booster is always sad. Each booster has its own history and characteristics. Thankfully, this doesn't happen often, thanks to our robust design and the vigilance of our team.” He added that SpaceX is working diligently to determine the root cause and implement corrective measures, emphasizing that the incident is purely a recovery issue and not a threat to the primary mission or public safety.
The booster failure comes the same week that SpaceX had to postpone the launch of its Polaris Dawn astronaut mission twice, first because of a helium leak and then again because of weather concerns during recovery at the end of the mission. Kiko Donchev, vice president of launch, acknowledged the difficult week on X (formerly Twitter), saying the team is persevering and noting that lessons learned from the recovery failure will improve the reliability of recovery and ascent.
The timing of Polaris Dawn's next launch remains uncertain, as it depends on several factors, including an FAA investigation, weather conditions at the time of landing, and launch pad availability. The mission is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A, which is also needed for NASA's Europa Clipper mission, opening a small window of opportunity for a planetary launch on October 10. Because it takes SpaceX about three weeks to reconfigure the launch pad from a Falcon 9 to a Falcon Heavy configuration, the Polaris Dawn mission is under pressure to remove the launch pad soon or face further delays.
Further complicating the situation, SpaceX is already using another launch pad in Florida, Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, for NASA's Crew 9 mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for after September 24.
Learn more SpaceFlightNow is here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering free speech and online censorship.
