2024-07-13 13:54:14
SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rockets have to remain on the ground for the time being. The reason was a serious breakdown on Thursday.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has temporarily banned the Falcon 9 rocket from the US company SpaceX from launching. According to a statement from the aviation authority, the Falcon 9 will remain on the ground until SpaceX has investigated the cause of Thursday’s breakdown, repaired the rocket and received a new permit from the authority. This could take several weeks or months, depending on the complexity of the problem with the rocket’s engine.
A spokesperson for the US space agency NASA said that NASA is closely monitoring all of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 missions. “SpaceX has been very forthcoming with information and is involving NASA in the ongoing investigation into the anomaly to understand the problem and find a way forward.”
About an hour after the Falcon 9 rocket was launched on Thursday, problems with the engine occurred, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX company. As a result, the Starlink satellites on board were placed in a lower orbit than planned and there is a risk that the rockets will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The space company is now trying to save the mission that began on Thursday. So far, they have made contact with five of the 20 satellites and want to influence their orbit using their ion engines, the company wrote on its boss Musk’s short message service X. The US billionaire added that SpaceX is updating the satellites’ software to ignite the on-board engines more strongly than usual. This should prevent re-entry into the atmosphere. “Unlike a Star Trek episode, this probably won’t work, but it’s worth a try,” Musk wrote.
The failed mission of the world’s most widely used rocket type ends a series of successes that had secured SpaceX a pioneering role in the industry. “We knew this incredible series had to end at some point, but 344 flights in a row is amazing,” said Tom Mueller, the former vice president of propulsion systems who designed the Falcon 9’s engines. But he was confident that the team would fix the problem and start the cycle again.
Numerous countries and space companies rely on the privately run company to send their satellites and astronauts into space. Industry experts estimate the company’s value at around 200 billion dollars. The acutely endangered satellites could be worth at least ten million dollars together.