The Federal Aviation Administration (Federal Aviation Administration) grounded its Falcon 9 rocket on Wednesday after a first-stage booster flipped over and exploded while attempting to land a drone ship off the coast of Florida.
The early morning launch was successful, putting the latest batch of 21 Starlink internet satellites into orbit.
“The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation into the anomaly during the Starlink Group 8-6 mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met,” the FAA said in a statement Friday.
A webcast from Elon Musk’s company showed the first stage, which normally fires its thrusters to achieve a precise vertical landing, tilting and exploding as it descended onto a drone off the coast of Florida.
Although landing the rocket is a secondary objective and no lives or public property were at risk, reusing the entire rocket system is crucial to SpaceX’s business model.
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It broke a streak of more than three years of hundreds of successful rocket landings. Falcon 9 is the workhorse of SpaceX’s fleet, relied on by the U.S. government and private industry to propel satellites and astronauts into orbit.
It was last on the ground for about two weeks in July, when its second stage engine experienced an anomaly that prevented it from deploying another batch of Starlink satellites at the correct altitude, causing them to burn up upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
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