Mission failure after a record breaking 300 three hundred plus consecutive SpaceX Falcon 9 launches, booster landings, and satellite deployments with total success Starlink 9-3 ended the streak with a second stage engine & booster failure July 1th 2024 from Vandenberg California.
Falcon 9 first stage B-1063-19 performed nominally, carrying the second stage and 20 Starlink satellites to orbit, seperating from the second stage as expected, and returning to Earth fro a successful droneship landing on OCISLY. This first stage booster landing marks the 329th recovery of an orbital class rocket to date.
SpaceX is reporting that the Falcon 9's second stage performed its first burn nominally, however a liquid oxygen leak developed on the second stage. After a planned relight of the upper stage engine to raise perigee - or the lowest point of orbit - the Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete the second burn to raise the satellites to a safe sustaining orbit.
Although the stage survived and still deployed the satellites, it did not successfully circularize its orbit, but it did passivate itself as normally performed at the end of each mission. This however left the 20 Starlink satellites in an eccentric high drag orbit with a very low perigee of 135 km, which is less than half the expected perigee altitude to stay in orbit. Even with early commands to activate their ion thrusters to raise the satellites orbit they can not overcome the high drag and loss of 5 km of altitude during each pass around the Earth. As such, the satellites will re-enter Earths atmosphere and safely fully demise. They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to the public on the ground.
This event is a reminder of how technically challenging spaceflight is. To date SpaceX have completed 364 successful Falcon 9 launches safely carrying astronauts, customer payloads and thousands of Starlink satellites to orbit. This makes the Falcon family of rockets one of the most reliable in the world. SpaceX will perform a full investigation in coordination with the FAA, to determine root cause, and make corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions.
FAA has put all SpaceX Falcon 9 launches on hold till the investigation is complete and all corrective measures have been taken. The length of time for the hold on Falcon 9 launches is undetermined at this time.
Article by SpaceX and Scott Schlke for spacenewsfl.com