SpaceX Investigating Falcon Upper Stage Burn Anomaly
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft lifts off on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station Sept. 28 from Space Launch Complex-40.
SpaceX says it is suspending Falcon rocket launches while investigating an anomaly that occurred during an upper-stage engine burn to dispose of the stage following launch of the Crew-9 mission Sept. 28.
“Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn,” SpaceX wrote in an update posted on X early Sept. 29. “As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.
“We will resume launching after we better understand root cause,” the company said.
SpaceX is preparing for a high-priority Falcon Heavy launch to send NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft on its way toward Jupiter during a planetary launch window that opens Oct. 10. Ahead of that, the company planned to launch the final batch of OneWeb’s first-generation broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit from Vandenberg SFB in California, previously scheduled for Oct. 1, and the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid science mission from Cape Canaveral SFS, previously planned for Oct. 7.
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