SpaceX’s flagship rocket, the Falcon 9, experienced a rare and unusual event on Thursday night (July 11).
This incident occurred at SpaceX Starlink Internet from satellite Vandenberg Space Force Base In California Falcon 9 Things started off well, the two stages separated on time, the first stage Came down for a landing The photo was taken on board the drone approximately eight minutes after the scheduled launch.
But the company said it had experienced problems with the upper stage of the rocket that will carry 20 Starlink spacecraft into low Earth orbit. SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk .
“We experienced an unknown engine RUD while restarting the upper stage to raise the perigee. Teams are reviewing data tonight to determine the root cause. Starlink satellites were deployed, but the perigee may have been too low to raise the orbit. We will have more details in the coming hours.” Musk said via X: About two hours after launch.
“RUD” stands for “rapid unplanned disintegration,” which in SpaceX terms means an explosion or disintegration. (Just to be clear, perigee is the point in an object’s orbit where it is closest to Earth. Earth .
An hour after Musk’s post, SpaceX provided further details via its X account.
“Tonight’s Starlink Falcon 9 launch did not complete the second burn of its second stage engine. As a result, the Starlink satellites were deployed to a lower orbit than planned. SpaceX has contacted five satellites so far and is currently attempting to raise their orbits using ion thrusters.” The company wrote: .
in Reply to that post Musk said the effort “probably won’t work, but it’s worth a try.”
The Falcon 9 upper stage is powered by a single Merlin engine, but something seemed a bit odd on this flight. SpaceX’s launch webcast showed fluffy white ice building up near the engine as it ignited in space. It’s an unusual sight, and could be a sign of a fuel leak. However, this is purely speculation, and neither SpaceX nor Musk have said anything about the ice so far.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on the deck of a ship at sea, moments after launching 20 Starlink satellites into orbit from California on July 11, 2024. (Image courtesy of SpaceX)
Falcon 9 is the most produced rocket The Falcon 9 is currently flying, with 69 launches already scheduled for 2024. Known for its reliability, the Falcon 9 has only had one in-flight failure in its history, during a robotic rocket launch. Dragon Launching a cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) June 2015 .
The Falcon 9 is also capable of manned flight and has conducted 13 crewed missions to date, nine of which have sent NASA astronauts to the ISS. At this point, it’s unclear what impact Thursday’s incident will have on the rocket and its payload. SpaceX must first determine exactly what happened and how to address the problem.
Thursday’s launch will bring into orbit 20 Starlink satellites, 13 of which can beam service directly to mobile phones. Most of the recent Falcon 9 missions have been servicing the massive and growing Starlink megaconstellation, which currently consists of: More than 6,100 satellites in operation Of the 69 Falcon 9 launches conducted so far in 2024, 49 have been dedicated to Starlink missions.
