FAA pending investigation into rare marine accident landing of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets

A Federal Aviation Administration investigation is pending to determine what caused SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets to fire in the first place. Crashed into a landing craft Starlink helped launch another batch of Internet satellites earlier Wednesday.

After standing down The first of two planned back-to-back launches of SpaceX Starlinks, one from Florida and the other from California, took off from the Polaris Dawn launch late Tuesday due to an unfavorable long-range forecast.

But the second flight was aborted when the first stage deployed at a Florida launch pad crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while trying to touch down a SpaceX drone parked several hundred miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.

The FAA said an investigation will be required until SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets — including the Polaris Dawn booster — are inspected and appropriate actions are approved.

„The return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA’s determination that any system, procedure or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety,” the FAA said in a statement.

„Additionally, SpaceX must request and obtain approval from the FAA to change the license that includes any corrective actions and meets all other licensing requirements,” the company said.

Late Tuesday, SpaceX delayed the planned launch for Wednesday Polaris Dawn missionA commercial flight, which would be the first non-governmental spacewalk, is scheduled for as early as Friday. The launch has now been suspended indefinitely pending an investigation into the landing accident.

The landing failure ended a streak of 267 successful booster recoveries in February 2021. However, Falcon 9’s second stage successfully carried 21 Starlink Internet satellites into their planned orbits.

The first stage landing appeared normal until the moment of touchdown, when more flames than usual were visible around the base of the rocket as it approached the base. A landing leg immediately collapsed on touchdown and the booster, shrouded in fire and smoke, tipped over the side of the landing craft into the Atlantic Ocean.

„After successful liftoff, Falcon 9’s first-stage booster skids for touchdown following shortfall of Gravitas droneship,” SpaceX said on social media. „Teams assess booster’s flight data and status.”

This was first stage B1062’s 23rd and final launch and landing, setting a new re-entry record. SpaceX is working toward certifying 40 flights each of its Falcon 9 first stages.

Shortly after the Florida Starlinks were deployed, the company called off the California launch, which was scheduled for 5:58 a.m. EDT, to give engineers more time to review telemetry and video footage for signs of problems that could affect other rockets.

„We are standing down from our nightly @Starlink launch to give the team time to review the booster landing data from the previous launch,” SpaceX said. He said. „A new target release date will be shared once available.”