A Falcon 9 rocket had an unexpected failure on August 28 when the booster rocket landed following its trip to space. There were no injuries since it landed at sea on an autonomous barge, but the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the rocket pending an investigation, and SpaceX postponed a second launch scheduled for last night.
This particular launch was for the deployment of megaconstellation Starlink satellites, which were successfully sent into orbit. However, it might negatively impact two crewed missions: the private mission Polaris Dawn and the launch of Crew-9 toward the International Space Station.
“The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 28,” the FAA wrote in a statement. “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. The FAA is requiring an investigation.”
A note to the press stated that a return to flight will happen after the FAA determines that there is no risk to public safety. A similar grounding happened in July – on that occasion, it was the second stage that failed to complete its second burn. The grounding then lasted for two weeks.
Polaris Dawn was supposed to launch on Tuesday, August 27, but bad weather conditions forecast at reentry postponed it to at least tomorrow. There have not been any public posts about the investigation from the Polaris Program or SpaceX so it is uncertain at this point for how long it will be postponed. Polaris Dawn is going to perform the first private space walk. and break a bunch of records doing so.
