SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is grounded after fiery landing failure

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has grounded SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rocket following a failed landing attempt during a recent Starlink mission. After successfully carrying the satellites into orbit on Wednesday, the first-stage booster returned to Earth and toppled into the Atlantic Ocean in a fireball shortly after touchdown, ending a streak of 267 successful landings.

The FAA has ordered an investigation into the failed touchdown. “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported,” an FAA spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters. “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.”

These investigations tend to wrap up fairly quickly at least, with SpaceX responsible for conducting the probe itself and the FAA then assessing its findings. This is the second grounding for SpaceX this year after a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon 9 booster caused a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” during another Starlink satellite delivery mission in July. The FAA permitted the Falcon 9 to be returned to flight just 15 days later. 

Groundings for SpaceX workhorse rocket are rare, with the last one occurring in 2016 prior to the two incidents this year. According to SpaceX, the specific booster that failed on Wednesday was on its 23rd flight.