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SpaceX is seeking a quick return to Falcon 9 launches after its workhorse rocket suffered a rare failure during a satellite launch last week.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received a request from SpaceX on Monday (July 15) to continue shipping Falcon 9 flights during the ensuing mandatory investigation the infamous Starlink 9-3 mission in which a leak of liquid oxygen occurred on the upper stage of the rocket. SpaceX asked the FAA to make a public safety determination, which would allow the company to resume launches if the administration determines the anomaly “did not involve safety-critical systems or otherwise endanger public safety,” SpaceflightNow reported reported on Tuesday (July 16). The FAA also provided the statement to Space.com, upon request.
“The FAA is responsible for and committed to protecting the public during commercial space transport launch and re-entry operations,” the agency wrote in the emailed statement. “The FAA is reviewing the request [by SpaceX] and will be guided by data and safety at every stage of the process.”
If approved, SpaceX could meet its schedule to launch two human spaceflight launches in the coming weeks. Falcon 9 uses different versions of the rocket for both crewed and uncrewed launches. The first astronaut launch, slated for July 31, is privately funded Polaris Dawn mission (financed by American billionaire Jared Isaacman) that will include the first commercial spacewalk in high Earth orbit. The second, expected in mid-August, is the launch of Crew-9 to the International Space Station on behalf of NASA.
NASA is continuing the investigation of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch failure and its potential impact on future agency astronaut missions, the space agency said in a July 12 statement.
“Crew safety and mission assurance are top priorities for NASA,” NASA officials wrote in the statement. “SpaceX has received information and is including NASA in the company’s ongoing investigation of the anomaly to understand the issue and the path forward. NASA will provide updates on agency missions including potential schedule impacts, if any , as more information becomes available.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has sent 364 missions to space and suffered only two failures in 14 years, suffered a liquid oxygen propellant leak in its second stage during its launch on July 11.
“After a planned re-engineering of the advanced stage engine to raise perigee – or the lowest point of orbit – [single] Merlin vacuum engine [on the second stage] there was an anomaly and it was unable to complete the second burn,” SpaceX wrote in a July 12 update.
“Although the stage survived and still deployed the satellitesit failed to circle its orbit, but it deactivated itself as is usually done at the end of each mission,” SpaceX added. “This left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 km [84 miles]which is less than half the expected perigee height.”
In its July 16 statement, the FAA said the request for a public safety decision would be evaluated on matters including “systems critical to safety, the nature and consequences of the anomaly, the adequacy of the existing flight safety analysis , safety organization performance, and environmental factors.”
“If the FAA agrees that there were no public safety issues involved,” the statement said, “the operator may return to flying while the investigation is open, provided the other license requirements are met.”
The FAA has not provided a timeline for evaluating the request, which is standard practice in aerospace safety investigations due to the complex nature of spaceflight. Missions with humans on board, like NASA’s Polaris Dawn and Crew-9, would likely receive an additional level of scrutiny.
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The vast majority of SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets are for Starlink satellites, also made by SpaceX, to push out its satellite internet broadband business. But the rocket is also used for critical national security missions as well as a selection of high-profile government satellite launches used for Earth observation, for example.
Falcon 9 is also the most frequent rocket launch today, having sent 69 launches into space so far in 2024 (including the one failure). China has the second largest launch entity in the world after SpaceX 30 successful launches this year so far.
