By MARCIA DUNN | The Associated Press
SpaceX launches are on hold after a booster rocket toppled over in flames while landing Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the company’s Falcon 9 rockets and ordered an investigation following the predawn accident off the Florida coast. No injuries or public damage were reported.
It’s too early to know how much impact this will have on SpaceX’s upcoming crew flights, one private and the other for NASA. A billionaire’s chartered flight was delayed just a few hours earlier because of a poor weather forecast.
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The rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and got all 21 Starlink internet satellites to orbit. But the first-stage booster fell over in a fireball moments after landing on an ocean platform, the first such accident in years. It was the 23rd time this particular booster had launched, a recycling record for SpaceX.
The FAA said it must approve SpaceX’s accident findings and corrective action before the company can resume Falcon 9 launches. A launch from California with more Starlinks was immediately called off following the accident.
SpaceX’s Jon Edwards, a vice president, said the company is working “ASAP” to understand what went wrong.
“Losing a booster is always sad. Each one of them has a unique history and character. Thankfully this doesn’t happen often,” Edwards posted on X.
The grounding is sure to have a ripple effect on SpaceX’s jam-packed launch schedule moving forward. This week, the company twice delayed the launch of an ambitious crewed spaceflight mission called Polaris Dawn. That launch will send four private astronauts into space to perform the first commercial spacewalk. SpaceX had to stand down from a launch attempt Wednesday morning due to unfavorable weather.
NASA also recently tapped SpaceX to rescue a pair of the agency’s astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station, due to technical issues with the Boeing Co.’s Starliner spacecraft that brought them to the orbiting lab.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, set to bring the astronauts home, is slated to launch on September 24. It’s unclear if the FAA’s grounding will impact that schedule.
A NASA representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg News contributed to this report
