The second-stage engine on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered a rare malfunction in space during a routine Starlink mission on Thursday night, imperiling the satellites in the California company’s first rocket failure in more than seven years.
Roughly an hour after the Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, the rocket’s second stage failed to reignite in space. As a result, the 20 Starlink communications satellites it was carrying were deployed in a much lower orbit than planned, where they risk burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on his social media platform X that “for reasons currently unknown” the engine was destroyed when reignition was attempted.
The website Spaceflight Now reported that an unusual amount of ice was seen building up around the engine during its first ignition.
The botched mission of the world’s most active rocket breaks an impressive launch success streak that has maintained the industry dominance of SpaceX, a privately owned company valued at roughly $200 billion, which is relied upon by many countries and space companies to send their satellites into space.
Musk said SpaceX was attempting to save the Starlink satellites but having their thrusters fire at an unusually high rate to try to reach the proper orbit.
“The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down, or they burn up,” Musk said.
The failed engine firing occurred on the 354th mission of a Falcon 9 and marked the first failure since 2016, when a rocket exploded on a launch pad in Florida and destroyed an Israeli communications satellite.
Reuters contributed to this article.
