(Bloomberg) — SpaceX suffered a rare failure of its Falcon 9 rocket in space, marking the first major in-flight mishap in more than 300 launches of the workhorse vehicle.
The late-Thursday incident, which is now under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, is likely to have a ripple effect on the Elon Musk-led company’s rapid launch cadence moving forward, depending on how long it takes SpaceX to identify and fix the issue.
The failure will also temporarily ground the most dominant rocket on the market, as the Falcon 9 holds a de-facto monopoly on commercial satellite launches for a vehicle of its size.
The uncrewed rocket was carrying 20 of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, including 13 with the company’s new “direct to cell” capabilities that allow connection to unmodified smartphones. The satellites were still deployed but into the wrong orbit, SpaceX said Friday in a post on X.
The company also said that a liquid oxygen leak developed on the upper portion of the Falcon 9 before it tried to reignite in orbit. Livestreamed video of the routine launch showed chunks of icy material forming on the rocket and breaking away while in space. When the engine tried to reignite it failed and seemingly broke apart.
SpaceX said it was able to make contact with 10 of the satellites and attempted to raise them using the spacecraft’s ion thruster engines. But because of where the satellites were deployed, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to boost themselves high enough before being dragged back down to Earth, SpaceX said. That means they will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, the company added. The spacecraft don’t pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety, the company added.
The last major in-flight failure of a Falcon 9 rocket happened in 2015, when a vehicle carrying cargo to the International Space Station for NASA disintegrated on the climb to space. In 2016, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket also exploded as it was being fueled ahead of a test on the launchpad before taking flight.
Despite these early incidents, SpaceX has maintained a near-perfect track record of successful Falcon 9 rocket launches for the last decade, save for some landings that missed their marks. The company boasted 96 successful Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches in 2023. This flight was SpaceX’s 70th launch of its Falcon family of rockets for 2024.
The FAA said in an emailed statement it is requiring an investigation. The agency said a probe is designed to enhance public safety, determine the cause of the failure and identify corrective actions to avoid it happening again. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported, it said.
The FAA’s probe effectively means the Falcon 9 rocket is grounded until the agency determines there’s no risk to public safety. SpaceX may also need to modify its license with the FAA to incorporate any corrective measures.
The mishap is likely to delay Falcon 9 and potentially Falcon Heavy flights moving forward, though it’s unclear how long it will take to return to flight.
“Historical precedent is when there is some sort of a launch failure, the vehicle is down for six to nine months to do an accident investigation,” Chris Quilty, CEO and president of analytics firm Quilty Space, said in an interview. “Now there is no historical precedent for the Falcon 9, which has been launching about every two and a half days for the last year or two.”
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The company aims to launch as many as 148 flights this year with its Falcon rocket family. At the end of July, SpaceX intends to launch a crew of four private astronauts — including billionaire Jared Isaacman — on a mission to perform the first commercial spacewalk with SpaceX’s new spacesuits. The company also has its next crewed launch for NASA coming up in August, called Crew-9, which will send four astronauts to the International Space Station.
Isaacman said on X that his crew will “fly whenever SpaceX is ready,” with Musk responding that SpaceX will investigate the issue and look for “any other potential near-misses.”
A prolonged delay for the Falcon 9 could also have substantial impacts on the commercial satellite market. SpaceX was responsible for launching 82% of all of the material that went to orbit in 2023, according to BryceTech, a space analytics firm. And SpaceX is a key partner for NASA and the Defense Department.
Competitors like the United Launch Alliance and Arianespace have debuted similarly capable vehicles to the Falcon 9, but both of those rockets are relatively new and not flying nearly as frequently. Arianespace’s Ariane 6, for instance, flew for the first time on Tuesday and also suffered a partial failure toward the end of the flight.
Ultimately, the Falcon 9’s absence from the launch market will depend on the root cause of the Thursday night failure.
“Even the best Olympic athlete has an off day,” Carissa Christensen, CEO and founder of BryceTech, said. “Sometimes this is indicative of an emergent, systemic problem that’s going to be much harder to diagnose and fix.”
(Updates with details on the failure, satellites from SpaceX in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
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