SpaceX ends streak of 334 flawless flights as Falcon 9 fails. Starlink survivors to die soon [Update]

Updated on July 18, 9am PT: As expected, the Falcon 9 was indeed grounded; however, SpaceX seeks ways to obtain an exception to resume the flight operation before the full mishap investigation is officially over. Specifically, SpaceX has asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to make a so-called public safety determination.

“The FAA will review the request, and if in agreement, authorize a return to flight operations while the mishap investigation remains open and provided the operator meets all relevant licensing requirements,” said FAA as reported by SpaceFlightNow.

Early return of Falcon 9 is especially important for human spaceflights originally planned for the upcoming weeks – the crewed mission to ISS and the private Polaris Dawn mission of billionaire Jared Isaacman.

The article was updated with new information related to SpaceX's attempt to early return to flight of Falcon 9, the original article follows below.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying 20 Starlink satellites, experienced an anomaly during the launch last night. The issue occurred during an attempt to relight the Merlin engine on the second stage that was supposed to adjust the orbital trajectory where the satellites were to be inserted.

The engine was destroyed in the process; however, the satellites survived and were later deployed on a lower, highly eccentric orbit.

This was a major problem for the satellites because Falcon 9 failed to circularize the orbit and the spacecraft were left in an orbit with the lowest point (perigee) of just 135 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, where they are experiencing significant drag.

Today, SpaceX released a statement explaining that the Starlink onboard propulsion does not have enough thrust to raise satellites' orbits:

“The team worked overnight to make contact with the satellites in order to send early burn commands, but the satellites were left in an enormously high-drag environment only 135 km above the Earth (each pass through perigee removed 5+ km of altitude from the orbit’s apogee, or the highest point in the satellite orbit). At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites.”

As a result, all 20 spacecraft – including 13 satellites with direct-to-cell connectivity – will fully burn once they re-enter the atmosphere.

The Merlin’s failure was a result of a liquid oxygen leak on the upper stage that was visible during the live stream in the form of an ice build-up.

Thursday’s Starlink mission brings to an end the streak of 334 flawless flights of Falcon 9. “This event is a reminder of how technically challenging spaceflight is,” SpaceX said.

“A major advantage of this super high flight rate is that we can identify and resolve problems that may only occur once every 1000 flights. This is impossible on a low flight rate vehicle,” Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, commented shortly after the unsuccessful launch.

SpaceX aim for 2024 was to achieve an unprecedented rate of 144 orbital flights per year. It seems that this is now hardly achievable, though. The company has completed roughly half of its flight manifest for the current calendar year, and the anomaly might potentially ground Falcon 9 for some time, depending on the length of the investigation and complexity of the identified issue.