SpaceX Grounds Falcon 9 Rocket After Third Anomaly in Three Months
SpaceX pauses Falcon 9 launches after a deorbit burn issue follows a successful crew delivery to the International Space Station. This marks the third technical anomaly for the rocket in just three months.
SpaceX grounds its Falcon 9 rocket after the vehicle's second stage fails to land in the expected ocean zone during a deorbit burn. This anomaly occurs immediately after the rocket successfully delivers NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to the International Space Station on the Crew-9 mission. The company states it plans to resume launches only after it fully understands the root cause of the issue.
This incident marks the third time in three months that the Falcon 9 experiences a significant anomaly. In July, a liquid oxygen leak caused by a cracked sensor line led to the loss of 20 Starlink satellites. In August, a booster is destroyed after coming down too hot during a drone ship landing attempt, though that specific issue does not trigger a pause in operations.
The sudden grounding threatens to delay several critical upcoming missions with tight launch windows. The European Space Agency's Hera asteroid mission and NASA's Europa Clipper mission are both scheduled for early October and must launch before the end of the month. Additionally, a scheduled launch of 20 internet satellites for Eutelsat OneWeb is already delayed as a direct result of this latest investigation.