Third Time’s the Charm… We Hope

SpaceX has been forced to ground its Falcon rocket fleet for the third time in three months after experiencing a second-stage firing issue. The company will need to quickly resolve this problem in preparation for two exploration missions slated to launch in early October.

SpaceX commented that the discrepancy occurred just 30 minutes after releasing NASA’s Crew 9 mission into orbit. The Falcon 9 second stage performed a failed firing of its Merlin Vacuum engine: a process designed to drive the stage back into the atmosphere for a destructive breakup, ensuring debris falls into a previously designated space.

“Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn,” SpaceX shared on social media. “As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.”

This incident will likely spark yet another FAA investigation. SpaceX is currently disputing a civil penalty and mission delay issued after alleged launch violations and penalty breaches. In the meantime, an upcoming 20-satellite launch at Vandenberg Space Force Base and a Starlink delivery mission have been put on hold.

“We will resume launching after we better understand [the] root cause” of the failure, SpaceX continued.

The Falcon 9 fleet has been grounded two other times in the past few months. On July 11, an issue with the upper stage resulted in the loss of 20 Starlink satellites. After a 15-day pause, the company traced the issue to a liquid oxygen leak and was able to resume flights. Then, on August 18, the rocket was grounded after making a crash landing on SpaceX’s drone ship. The launch was still considered a success and the suspension lasted only three days.

SpaceX will need to work quickly to diagnose the issue in time for upcoming NASA and ESA launches. A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch with the ESA’s Hera Mission on October 7 to study the Didymos binary asteroid system. Three days later, a Falcon Heavy should be taking off with NASA’s Europa Clipper to examine one of Jupiter’s moons.

FMI: www.spacex.com