CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. – The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring an investigation into what went wrong with the landing of a SpaceX rocket booster that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Wednesday.
The Falcon 9 rocket booster caught fire and tipped over while trying to land on the “A Shortfall of Gravitas” droneship, after sending a batch of Starlink satellites into orbit at 3:48 a.m.
No one was hurt. It was the booster’s 23rd launch.
Shortly after the incident, SpaceX scrubbed a Starlink launch that was supposed to happen at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, saying crews needed more time to assess booster landing data from a previous launch.
The FAA released this statement to News 6 Wednesday:
The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 28. The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation.
FAA
By requiring an investigation into the mishap, the FAA is effectively grounding SpaceX until the agency approves the company’s final report and ensures that public safety is not affected. SpaceX’s investigation would also require the company to identify anything that can be done to prevent it from happening again.
It’s not known how long an investigation will take.
SpaceX announced the Starlink launch after scrubbing the planned launch of the Polaris Dawn mission for weather concerns. A new target date for that launch has not been set.
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