SpaceX may be working too hard on its Falcon 9 rocket. The normally reliable launch vehicle suffered another breakdown and was grounded for the second time in a month.
Falcon 9 launched the Crew-9 mission on Saturday, September 28, carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station aboard the Dragon crew capsule. However, after its launch, the rocket’s upper stage experienced an “off-nominal deorbit burn” that caused it to miss its target landing zone, SpaceX reported. wrote in X.
“We will resume the rollout once we better understand the root cause,” the company added. It’s unclear how long the Falcon 9 will remain grounded, but the rocket is an industry staple for both private and government payloads. Saturday’s liftoff marked the 89th launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2024 alone. SpaceX is aiming for a record 148 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket this year, surpassing 2023’s 98 missions.
Falcon 9 hasn’t lived up to its typically high standards this year. The trusty mid-size launch vehicle suffered another anomaly in late August. After launching 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, the rocket booster returned to Earth for a landing on an unmanned ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Although the booster’s descent went smoothly, it capsized once it reached the ship and broke apart, causing a large fire.
The incident led the US Federal Aviation Administration to ground the rocket, but the Falcon 9 was back up and running in short order and launched another batch of Starlink satellites three days later. The August landing mishap ended a streak of 267 successful touchdowns and backup recoveries since February 2021.
Falcon 9, usually a crowd favorite, disappointed its fans on three different occasions this year alone. In July, the rocket failed to launch its payload of satellites into orbit due to an upper stage malfunction. The incident grounded the rocket until an investigation into the failed flight concluded about two weeks later, pointing to an oxygen leak as the reason behind the engine malfunction.
The 41-meter (135-foot) tall rocket is able to lift up to 50,300 pounds (22,800 kilograms) of payload into low Earth orbit. Since its debut in 2010, Falcon 9 has flown more than 350 missions. This recent series of setbacks is unusual for SpaceX’s workhorse, and the company has a tight schedule for the rocket, leaving little room for respite.
Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the European Space Agency’s Hera mission on October 7. Hopefully the rocket will have been recovered by then.
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