Last night, the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed while attempting to land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster nearly completed touchdown when it overturned and fell into the sea.
According to CBS News, this is the first time the company has failed to recover a reusable booster since February 2021, ending a streak of 267 consecutive successful landings of reusable boosters..
SpaceX announced the failed mission at 4:04 a.m. ET, writing that the booster “tipped over after landing” during its 23rd launch. The second phase successfully put a batch of 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, but 13 of them had the company’s cellular transmission capabilities.
SpaceX had planned to conduct back-to-back launches this morning, but postponed the second launch to review data from the failed landing. In July, the FAA temporarily grounded the Falcon 9 rocket after its second stage exploded.
Ahead of this morning’s launch, SpaceX has postponed the Polaris Dawn mission, which was designed to send four astronauts into the Van Allen radiation belts and attempt the first private astronaut spacewalk. The company said bad weather was the reason for the cancellation.
