It was supposed to be an epic week for space company SpaceX, but things didn’t go as expected. An explosion during the latest Falcon 9 landing has once again paralyzed the company’s operations until an investigation can determine the cause. This This is the second time this summer that this has happened and now could mean a significant delay to the Polaris Dawn mission which represents the first civilian spacewalk.
At this point, it’s not clear that these are serious problems, but they are unfortunate setbacks for the company. The private Polaris Dawn mission was supposed to take off early last Tuesday (Spanish time), but was initially delayed due to a helium leak. later due to bad weather conditions. Without a third rendezvous, the mission faced the recent Falcon 9 failure.
After canceling the launch due to weather conditions, SpaceX decided to continue the launch of a constellation of Starlink satellites, a routine operation. Upon return, the rocket’s first stage exploded and caught fire upon reaching the landing pad. It was the company’s most used launch vehicle, with up to 23 launches.
Falcon 9 First Stage Explosion
While the launch and deployment of the 21 Starlink satellites went smoothly, the reentry failure forced the FAA to intervene. (Federal Aviation Administration). They released a statement informing that the Falcon 9 rocket has moved onto land We are waiting for an official investigation into the incident.Once it is proven that what happened does not pose a risk to future missions, manned or not, activities will resume.
The company has survived a previous failure this summer it is This meant a break of several weeks. until the investigation into the incident is completed. It should be taken into account that before this latest incident, SpaceX had accumulated a streak of 267 successful Falcon 9 landings.
A Falcon 9 rocket awaits launch at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The shutdown halts the Polaris Dawn mission, which remains suspended indefinitely. It’s not just one of dozens of missions that Elon Musk’s space company is carrying out throughout the year. A total of four crew members will travel inside the Falcon 9-powered Crew Dragon spacecraft, covering the furthest distance a human has traveled since Apollo 17, the last mission, in 1972. They’ll also be performing a spacewalk, where the suits developed by SpaceX will be tested in a high-risk maneuver.