There’s nothing clear; Falcon 9 will take off again or not.
SpaceX was launching 30 satellites for internet purposes in california on Thursday night (July 11), then this shocking thing happened: rocket’s top-layer engine wasn’t able to 2nd burn, so SpaceX Team had to deploy it into the lower orbit than its initially targeted.
You might be thinking, Why FAA came to interfare with the rocket launch, right?
“The FAA will be involved in every step of the investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions”, FAA officials said. So we can say, FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) came there to help SpaceX in finding the main reason of Falcon 9 rocket failure.
If you don’t know what FAA does, “FAA main purpose is looking for all flight system and ensure whether it’s safe or not, whether it will harm the public safety.”
FAA again noted, “According to the matter, SpaceX may have to get the approval so that its license could be modified and finally meet all other licensing requirements”.
Just after the incident, on other day (July 12) SpaceX announced on X that communicating with 5 of the 20 satellites was successful and their team tried pushing their orbits higher with the help of onboard ion thrusters.
“Unlike a ‘Star Trek’ episode, this will probably not work, but it’s worth a shot. The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up,” Elon Musk commented on X in the response to SpaceX post.
We rarely see these types of Falcon 9 anomalies, since its first debut in June 2010, there’s been more than 350 failures. One of the most remarkable accident was — the explosion in June 2015, caused the loss of a robotic Dragon cargo capsule which was headed for ISS (International Space Station).
So was it a complete failure?
Nope, although the incident was not that destructive, the good news is satellites got deplyed and some of them might even make it to their intended orbit.
When you look at past, Falcon 9 has successfully flown astronauts 13 times. Upcoming, human flights of two people are coming up relatively soon — 1. Private Polaris effort to low Earth orbit (July 31) — 2. Crew-9 mission to the ISS for NASA (near about next month).
And, Yes! These dates are not cement hard deadlines, due to the result of Thursday night’s anomaly, the respective dates could slip off. “But the wait likely won’t be too long“, said Jared Isaacman, billionaire entreprenuer, funder and commander of Polaris Dawn and he also funded 2021 pioneering Inspiration4 mission.
“SpaceX has an incredible track record with Falcon 9. I can say from personal experience they are very transparent when issues arise. I have no doubt they will arrive at a cause quickly and ensure the most cost-effective and reliable launch vehicle keeps delivering payload to orbit. As for Polaris Dawn, we will fly whenever SpaceX is ready and with complete confidence in the rocket, spaceship and operations,” Isaacman, billionaire entreprenuer shared with his followers on an X post.
Related: SpaceX Drops the Oil Rigs and gives amazing details of Booster Static Firing
Related: Watch Falcon 9 launch 22 satellite to Orbit on July 9 2023
