by The IS SpaceX rocket advanced stage engine failure late Thursday the Federal Aviation Administration investigated the grounding of 20 Starlink internet satellites in a low, unsustainable orbit and is likely to delay at least one and possibly two upcoming pilot flights of the Falcon 9 rocket company.
The disaster ended a remarkable streak of 344 successful consecutive Falcon 9 flights dating back to 2015. The FAA, which authorizes commercial launch operations in the United States, said in a statement Friday that a joint failure investigation is needed before the workhorse Falcon 9. to be cleared to fly again.
“Return to flight is based on the FAA’s determination that no system, process or procedure related to the disaster affects public safety,” the FAA said. “Furthermore, SpaceX may be required to seek and obtain approval from the FAA to modify its license that includes any corrective actions and meets all other licensing requirements.”
Meanwhile, the planned July 31 launch of entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and three colleagues on a commercial flight that will include the first spacewalk by private citizens – Polaris Dawn – is in limbo.
The failure could also affect NASA’s plans to send its next long-duration crew to the International Space Station. The Liftoff of the Crew 9 mission is currently targeted for around August 19, but it is assumed that the SpaceX failure investigation will be complete by then and that NASA agrees with the findings.
For his part, Isaacman was undaunted, posting a note on social media that he and his crew, including two SpaceX employees, have full confidence in the Falcon 9.
“SpaceX has an incredible track record with Falcon 9,” he said. “I can say from personal experience that they are very transparent when issues arise. I have no doubt that they will quickly find a reason and ensure that the most cost-effective and reliable launch vehicle maintains the deliver payload to orbit.
“For Polaris Dawn, we will fly when SpaceX is ready and with full confidence in the rocket, spacecraft and operations.”
Given SpaceX’s high flight rate and ability to launch its own payloads – Starlinks – the company may be able to recover in fairly short order. But that will depend on what went wrong, what might be needed to fix it and when the FAA grants a new pilot license.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk thanked Isaacman for his support, saying the company will “investigate the issue and look for any other near misses that may be unmanned.”
“A major advantage of this super high flight rate is that we can identify and fix problems that may only occur once every 1,000 flights. This is impossible on a low flight rate vehicle.”
However it does happen, the incident underscores NASA’s continued push to certify the Boeing Starliner capsule after its continuous test flight completed. The space agency wants two crewed ferries from different suppliers to keep NASA’s astronaut crew aboard the International Space Station if one or the other fails.
Boeing had its own problems with the Starliner, including a series of software and hardware problems that delayed launch by four years. The spacecraft is currently docked at the space station, but its return to Earth from its first pilot test flight is pending further analysis of helium leaks and problems with its thrusters.
Before Thursday’s launch, SpaceX had suffered only one flight failure in 354 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket launches dating back to the system’s first flight in 2010.
A Falcon 9 carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station exploded during launch in June 2015 when an internal strut failed, allowing high-pressure helium to rupture the second stage’s liquid oxygen tank.
In a post on his social media platform early Friday, Musk said the Starlink launch failure occurred during an attempt to restart the rocket’s second stage Merlin engine to place the craft into the correct Starlink deployment orbit.
He initially said the failure was caused by an “engine RUD”, a tongue-in-cheek acronym that stands for “rapid unscheduled disassembly”, suggesting the stage blew up or at least suffered a structural failure of some kind.
But the company later said the failure was caused by an oxygen propellant leak and that the engine misfired the stage. But although the Starlinks were successfully deployed, they were left in an elliptical orbit with a low point well below a manageable height.
“After a planned re-engineering of the advanced stage engine to raise perigee – or the lowest point of orbit – Merlin’s Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete the second burn,” SpaceX said on its website.
“Although the stage survived and still deployed the satellites, it did not successfully circularize its orbit. This left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 kilometers (84 miles), which is less than half the height expected perigee.”
At that altitude, the satellites are being pulled down during repeated passages through the upper atmosphere. Even at full power, the thrust from onboard ion thrusters is unlikely to be sufficient to successfully lift the satellites,” the company said.
“Therefore, the satellites will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and completely disintegrate (burn up). They are not a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety.”
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