SpaceX pauses launches to investigate Falcon 9 issue on Crew 9 astronaut mission

SpaceX has temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 rocket after a problem occurred with the vehicle during the Crew-9 astronaut launch for NASA.

Crew-9 launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Saturday (September 28), sending NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aboard the Crew Dragon Freedom capsule.

Everything seemed to be going well. The Falcon 9's first stage landed successfully shortly after liftoff and the rocket's upper stage placed Freedom into the correct orbit. The capsule is on track to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday afternoon (September 29) as planned.

But after this work was completed, there was a problem in the upper level, as SpaceX announced early Sunday morning.

“Following today's successful launch of Crew-9, the Falcon 9 second stage was disposed of at sea as planned, but experienced an unscheduled deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage landed safely in the sea, but outside the target area. “We will continue the launch once we better understand the root cause,” SpaceX wrote in a post on X.

Related: SpaceX Crew-9 astronaut mission: Live updates

In fact, a Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch 20 broadband satellites for Eutelsat OneWeb from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday evening, but that launch was postponed.

The Crew 9 incident was the second problem in the Falcon 9 upper stage in less than three months. On July 11, a liquid oxygen leak occurred in the upper stage of the rocket during the launch of 20 SpaceX Starlink internet satellites. As a result, the spacecraft were deployed too low and were lost.

SpaceX attributed this anomaly to a ruptured line for a pressure sensor in the upper stage's liquid oxygen system. The Falcon 9 returned to flight after just two weeks, completing a mission on July 27.

The rocket was grounded again after a first stage failed to land successfully during an Aug. 28 mission that otherwise went well. This break was even shorter: the Falcon 9 flew two successful missions just three days later and also made the landings.

Following today's successful launch of Crew-9, the Falcon 9 second stage was disposed of at sea as planned, but an unscheduled deorbit fire occurred. This caused the second stage to land safely in the sea, but outside the target area. We will proceed with the launch after we…September 29, 2024

Crew-9 sends Hague and Gorbunov to the ISS for an approximately five-month stay. The duo will return to Earth in February alongside NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived at the orbiting laboratory aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule in June.

Starliner came home without her earlier this month; The capsule had experienced engine problems in orbit, and NASA ultimately deemed a crewed return to Earth with the spacecraft too risky. So the agency changed Crew-9's manifest and removed two astronauts from launch to make room for Wilmore and Williams on Freedom for the descent.

SpaceX pauses launches to investigate Falcon 9 issue on Crew 9 astronaut mission

ByVanessa

By Vanessa

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