The issue occurred on Thursday night (July 11), during the launch of 20 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The Falcon 9’s upper-stage engine failed to complete its second burn as planned, and the spacecraft were deployed into a lower-than-intended orbit as a result, according to SpaceX.
“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency added.
The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up," company founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote on X in response to the SpaceX post.
The rocket has two crewed launches coming up relatively soon — the private Polaris Dawn effort to low Earth orbit on July 31 and the Crew-9 mission to the ISS for NASA sometime next month.
Those target dates could slip as a result of Thursday night’s anomaly, but the wait likely won’t be too long, said billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who funded and will command Polaris Dawn and did the same for the pioneering Inspiration4 mission back in 2021.
The original article contains 557 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The issue occurred on Thursday night (July 11), during the launch of 20 Starlink internet satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The Falcon 9’s upper-stage engine failed to complete its second burn as planned, and the spacecraft were deployed into a lower-than-intended orbit as a result, according to SpaceX.
“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency added.
The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up," company founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote on X in response to the SpaceX post.
The rocket has two crewed launches coming up relatively soon — the private Polaris Dawn effort to low Earth orbit on July 31 and the Crew-9 mission to the ISS for NASA sometime next month.
Those target dates could slip as a result of Thursday night’s anomaly, but the wait likely won’t be too long, said billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who funded and will command Polaris Dawn and did the same for the pioneering Inspiration4 mission back in 2021.
The original article contains 557 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!