The second-stage engine of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed in space on Thursday night, putting the Starlink satellites on board at risk, the first malfunction in more than seven years for a rocket the global space industry relies on.
About an hour after the Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Center in California on Thursday night, the rocket’s second stage failed to reignite in space, deploying 20 Starlink satellites into a much lower orbit than planned, putting them at risk of burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
An attempt was made to reignite the engine in space, but “the engine experienced a RUD for an unknown reason.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote: He wrote on his social media platform “X,” referring to industry acronym for “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly,” which usually means an explosion.
The failure of the mission for the world’s most dynamic rocket snapped an enviable streak of success that has kept SpaceX at the forefront of the space industry. Many countries and space companies rely on the private company, worth roughly $200 billion, to send satellites and astronauts into space.
Musk said SpaceX will update software on its Starlink satellites to make their onboard thrusters fire more powerfully than usual to avoid fires on re-entry.
“Unlike a Star Trek episode, this probably won’t work, but it’s worth a try,” he said.
The engine failure occurred during the Falcon 9’s 354th mission and was the first for the aircraft since a rocket exploded on a launch pad in Florida in 2016, destroying its payload, an Israeli communications satellite.
“We knew this incredible streak would end eventually, but 344 consecutive flights is incredible!” Tom Mueller, former SpaceX vice president of propulsion who designed the Falcon 9 engines, wrote back to Musk. “The team will resolve the issue and restart the cycle.”
While the Falcon 9 flight was a company-run mission, the rocket failure and SpaceX’s investigation into the cause could affect the company’s timeline for future customer missions.
The Falcon 9, which launches SpaceX’s Crew Dragon astronaut taxi, is the only U.S. rocket capable of sending NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The space agency is trying to help Boeing resolve an unrelated issue with its Starliner, which is currently in the middle of a critical test mission to prove it can orbit as NASA’s second astronaut-carrying spacecraft alongside Crew Dragon.
SpaceX has launched about 7,000 Starlink satellites of various designs into space since 2018 for a global broadband internet network, and the manufacturing costs of each individual satellite have changed several times.
Industry analysts say the satellites being launched on Thursday’s mission could be worth a total of at least $10 million.
