FAA Grounds SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket After Landing Failure

Tom Jowitt,
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A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from California. Image credit: SpaceX

SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded by the FAA, after this week’s failed booster platform landing

SpaceX has been handed some bad news by the US aviation regulator, after a landing failure of its Falcon 9 rocket.

Spaceflight Now earlier this week reported that Falcon 9 booster 1062, making its 23rd flight, had tipped over and exploded as it landed on the drone ship.

This is now the second grounding in less than two months for Elon Musk’s space venture, and it could potentially delay future missions.

FAA grounding

According to Spaceflight Now, the booster, serial number B1062 in the SpaceX fleet, suffered a hard landing.

The booster was then consumed in a fireball on the deck of the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean about 250 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina.

It was apparently the first booster landing failure since February 2021.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration was quoted as saying that while no public injuries or public property damage was reported, “The FAA is requiring an investigation.”

The FAA had made a similar declaration following a Falcon 9 upper-stage failure in July during the Starlink 9-3 mission. SpaceX resumed spaceflights later in July.

Polaris delay?

Jon Edwards, the SpaceX vice president of Falcon Launch Vehicles, regretted the loss of the Falcon 9 booster 1062 in a post on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).

There are also concerns that the FAA grounding could potentially cause further delays to SpaceX’s high-profile Polaris Dawn mission, which seeks to carry four people into orbit to attempt the first private spacewalk.

The Polaris mission had been expected to launch this week, but was delayed due to poor weather conditions. A new date has not been set yet.