Elon Musk led SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded for the second time this year by federal regulators after it failed to land properly after its satellite launch.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that it would launch an investigation into the incident after a Falcon 9 rocket failed an attempt to land on Earth post routine Starlink mission.
Falcon 9, the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket, is facing a detention for a second time due to its failed landing attempt.
Falcon 9 launches 21 @Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Florida pic.twitter.com/PoDEjGYGSM
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 28, 2024
The rocket’s reusable first stage booster returned to Earth after the Starlink mission and tried to land in the ocean in a routine manner.
But the rocket suddenly toppled into the ocean after the touchdown, reported news agency Reuters.
An FAA spokesperson briefed about the incident and said, “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation.”
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is prepared, after a delay, for launch of Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. August 27, 2024. Two crew members are expected to attempt the first-ever private spacewalk. The vehicle is horizontal before being lifted into launch position. (REUTERS)
The grounding of Falcon 9, which is a reusable, two-stage rocket, is a rare phenomenon. It is used by space agencies to put humans and satellites into space and it hasn’t faced any scrutiny since 2016 until July, when for the first time the rocket was grounded.
In July, Falcon 9 rocket faced heat following a second-stage failure in space that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites, according to Reuters.
The FAA has said that SpaceX will have to investigate the latest incident where its rocket toppled into ocean and it will be overseen by the federal regulators.
