SpaceX grounded after fumbling Falcon 9 landing for first time in years
The Falcon 9 first stage, which had performed a record-breaking 23 flights, made what appeared to be a hard landing on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, toppled over, and exploded. The incident marked the end of a streak of successful landings for the Falcon 9 first stage stretching back to 2021.
The mission, which sent 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct-to-Cell capabilities, into low-Earth orbit, was otherwise successful. Although SpaceX has appeared to make the landing of the Falcon 9 first stage almost routine, the incident confirms that the technical tour de force is anything but.
While the mishap occurred during the landing phase, SpaceX opted to stand down from the second Starlink mission of the night to allow teams time to review the data. Due to weather concerns, it had already scrubbed a planned launch for the Polaris Dawn mission.
Unsurprisingly, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is keen to take a closer look. While there were no reported injuries or damage to public property, the agency "is requiring an investigation."
