Falcon 9 booster misplaced in uncommon unsuccessful touchdown

WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 booster tipped over in a fiery touchdown after an Aug. 28 launch, the primary unsuccessful booster touchdown in three and a half years by SpaceX.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral’s Area Launch Complicated 40 at 3:48 a.m. Japanese carrying 21 Starlink satellites. The launch itself went as deliberate and the Falcon 9 higher stage deployed the satellites into orbit a bit greater than an hour after liftoff.

The rocket’s first stage returned to make a touchdown on a droneship, named A Shortfall of Gravitas, within the Atlantic Ocean. The booster’s descent seemed to be regular, however upon touchdown eight minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff, flames erupted from the bottom of the booster. The booster tipped over and broke aside inside 10 seconds, after which video from the droneship was reduce off.

“After a profitable ascent, Falcon 9’s first stage booster tipped over following landing on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship. Groups are assessing the booster’s flight knowledge and standing,” SpaceX posted on social media.

This was the fleet-leading 23^rd flight of this booster, designated B1062 by SpaceX. Sixteen of these launches had been of Starlink missions, with the others together with the Inspiration4 and Ax-1 personal astronaut missions and flights of GPS and business communications satellites.

The touchdown failure was the primary for a Falcon 9 booster since February 2021. On that launch, considered one of 9 Merlin engines within the first stage shut down early within the car’s ascent. Whereas the rocket was in a position to efficiently deploy its batch of Starlink satellites, the booster was unable to land on a droneship. SpaceX decided {that a} gap in an engine cowl, brought on by fatigue, allowed exhaust to get into the engine and injury it.

Since that failure, SpaceX had a streak of 268 profitable landings, excluding launches the place the booster was expended. That features a December 2023 launch the place the booster landed on the droneship however was later swept overboard in tough seas on its manner again to port.

This was to be the primary of a doubleheader of Falcon 9 launches simply hours aside, with a second launch deliberate for the early morning hours of Aug. 28 from Vandenberg Area Drive Base in California, additionally carrying Starlink satellites. SpaceX mentioned it was suspending the Vandenberg launch “to present the crew time to overview booster touchdown knowledge from the earlier launch.” The corporate didn’t announce a brand new launch date.

SpaceX introduced the launch doubleheader on quick discover after one other delay within the launch of the Polaris Daybreak personal astronaut mission from the Kennedy Area Middle. The launch, as soon as scheduled for early Aug. 26, was pushed again a day final week to carry out further pre-flight checks after which one other day to repair a helium leak in an umbilical line.

SpaceX introduced on the night of Aug. 27 that it was suspending the launch of Polaris Daybreak at the very least two days, to no sooner than Aug. 30, citing unfavorable climate in splashdown zones off the Florida coast for the Crew Dragon spacecraft.

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