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SpaceX's vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, John Edwards, has stressed that yesterday's Falcon 9 landing anomaly that saw the booster crash into the recovery drone ship stemmed from a faulty recovery attempt that carried no risks to the rocket's overall mission profile. His comments are important since the FAA has required an investigation from SpaceX for the landing failure, and as per Edwards, the rocket did not pose a threat to its primary mission or public safety. When read together with the FAA's statement following the accident, the SpaceX executive's comments indicate that the Falcon 9 could fly sooner than anticipated.
NASA's Response To Falcon 9 Landing Accident Casually Mentions Schedule Impacts
After yesterday's launch mishap, SpaceX, which was slated to launch another Starlink mission, decided to cancel the launch as it decided to review the booster landing data. Later during the day, the FAA sent out a statement to the media explaining that the agency was "requiring an investigation" and a "return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety."
The FAA added that SpaceX might have to incorporate "any corrective actions" in a license modification. When pressed further on whether this implied that the Falcon 9 was grounded, the FAA was not forthcoming and simply repeated its statement to Wccftech.
However, comments made by SpaceX's vice president of Falcon launch vehicles, John Edwards, indicate that the rocket might fly soon. Edwards' company is due to fly a historic mission for the Polaris program, which will see a crew of four astronauts break NASA altitude records and conduct a spacewalk with the Crew Dragon.
According to him, SpaceX is "working as hard as we can to thoroughly understand root cause and get corrective actions in place ASAP." A chance that the Falcon 9 approached the recovery ship too fast, as per SpaceX's live stream telemetry, might indicate that the failure was because of broader troubles with the rocket.
This could require a detailed investigation and lengthy fixes, but Edwards ruled out any risks to the rocket's launch mission profile or public safety from the crash. "One thing we do know though is this was purely a recovery issue," shared the SpaceX executive, adding that the landing mishap "posed no threat to primary mission or public safety."
In a related statement, NASA, due to fly its next crew complement to the ISS next month, is currently unclear whether the mishap will create scheduling difficulties. In a statement to the Washington Post's Christian Davenport, the space agency outlined that it will "provide updates on agency missions including potential schedule impacts, if any, as more information becomes available."
As for the Polaris Dawn mission, SpaceX has yet to provide a new launch date. The firm had announced its decision to stand down from the launch windows available yesterday and the day before, mere hours before the Falcon 9's landing anomaly. It shared that the weather of the Dragon landing area did not suit a launch, and with the Falcon 9 now being investigated, any future launch dates might also incorporate the data SpaceX gathers from its analysis.
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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