This image created from a SpaceX video shows the moment the first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket burst into flames after landing on a marine platform in the Atlantic Ocean on August 28, 2024. | Photo credit: SpaceX/AP
The US Federal Aviation Administration said Friday (Aug. 30, 2024) that SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicles can return to flight operations while the overall investigation into the anomaly during a recent Starlink mission remains open.
SpaceX requested a flight permit for the workhorse vehicle on Thursday (Aug. 29, 2024) and the FAA granted approval on Friday (Aug. 30, 2024). The agency said flights could resume “provided all other license requirements are met.”
On Wednesday (Aug. 28, 2024), the FAA grounded the Falcon 9 after it failed an attempt to land back on Earth during a routine Starlink mission, forcing the company to ground it for the second time this year.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launched a batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Florida on Wednesday morning (Aug. 28, 2024). The rocket’s reusable first stage booster returned to Earth and attempted to land on a seaplane as usual, but fell into the ocean after bursting into flames.
It is rare for the Falcon 9, a rocket that most countries in the Western world rely on to send satellites and humans into space, to fly. The rocket was previously grounded in July for the first time since 2016, following a second-stage failure in space that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites.
After a flight halt in July, SpaceX returned the Falcon 9 to flight 15 days later after the FAA approved the company’s request for an early return to flight.
Falcon 9 will also launch two NASA astronauts on a Crew Dragon spacecraft in late September, which will bring home next year two astronauts who are stuck on the International Space Station after their flight aboard Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft.
SpaceX has built a large fleet of reusable Falcon boosters since the rocket’s first launch in 2010, giving the company a long way ahead of its competitors in launch frequency.
Another Starlink mission was scheduled to launch from SpaceX’s other launch site in Southern California immediately after Wednesday’s flight, but the company canceled that mission after the landing failure.