FAA Grounds SpaceX Again After Falcon 9 Misses Latest Landing

SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Thursday morning after the rocket experienced its second mishap of the year the day before. SpaceX will be forced to pause future Falcon 9 launches, including its next scheduled Starlink mission, until the FAA completes its investigation.

Following a routine Starlink satellite launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, Aug. 28, the rocket’s second stage delivered its payload to orbit, but the first stage booster tipped over while attempting to land on its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

The rocket, which had been re-used 22 times prior to Wednesday’s mission, was destroyed in a fire. Both the FAA and SpaceX confirmed that nobody was injured in the explosion. SpaceX immediately postponed its next Starlink launch.

This is the second time in the span of two months that the FAA has grounded Falcon 9. In July, the FAA conducted an investigation after SpaceX experienced an upper stage malfunction that prevented the rocket from delivering its payload. SpaceX resumed launching two weeks later. The FAA did not say how long this new investigation will take.

These incidents follow an extraordinarily long streak of successful launches for SpaceX spanning more than 250 missions over several years — a streak which made the Falcon 9 the most reliable rocket in history.

The Falcon 9 pause impacts the upcoming Polaris Dawn crewed mission, in which a Falcon 9 rocket will launch a crew of private astronauts in the Dragon spacecraft. Polaris Dawn was delayed this week for technical issues and weather. No new launch date has yet been scheduled.

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