In less than a year and in a little over six months, another SpaceX Falcon 9 booster has tipped over after landing on its droneship. According to a release by the firm moments back, the Falcon 9 rocket, which flew a batch of 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida late at night yesterday, tipped over on its droneship after landing due to a fire in the aft or rear section of the rocket. SpaceX's previous Falcon 9 booster landing anomaly occurred in August, and this time around, the rocket tipped over after successfully landing.
Another SpaceX Falcon 9 Tips Over After Landing In Less Than A Year
SpaceX's latest Falcon 9 launch flew another batch of Starlink satellites to space with the typical configuration of 13 out of the 21 spacecraft being direct-to-cell hardware. The booster which flew the mission was relatively 'new' by SpaceX's standards since it was the rocket's fifth mission. Three of the booster's flights, including yesterday's launch, were for Starlink while the remainder were for a NASA mission and a Maxar satellite.
SpaceX's live feed of the Starlink launch showed the Falcon 9 landing successfully on the drone ship before the feed switched to the second-stage booster on its way to space. Starlink launch streams are typically shorter in duration, and unlike its earliest missions, SpaceX simply broadcasts the launch without any commentary from presenters.
However, in an update shared roughly 12 hours after launch, SpaceX revealed that its first-stage booster had tipped over after landing. A similar mishap had occurred previously in August when a Falcon 9 tipped almost immediately after landing. The crash was caught on SpaceX's livestream and the rocket was grounded while SpaceX worked with the FAA to resolve the anomaly.
This time around, SpaceX shared that a fire occurred in the rocket's aft or bottom section soon after landing. This fire damaged one of the rocket's landing legs and led it to tip over. Footage of the Falcon 9's previous landings shows fire suppression systems firing up as soon as the rocket lands to put out any fires from residual propellants in the rocket's systems.
Whether the fire that led to the rocket tipping over was due to an anomaly with the vehicle or with the fire suppression system remains unclear. SpaceX did confirm that the fire was "off-nominal," so by all accounts, it appears that the fault was in the rocket. The next Falcon 9 mission is slated to lift off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California to launch a NASA Earth observatory.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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