SpaceX flagship rocket grounded after landing failure

SpaceX’s primary Falcon 9 rocket was grounded for the second time this year by federal regulators, after one of the company’s vehicles failed to land properly following a routine satellite launch. 

The US Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday in a statement that it is requiring an investigation into the incident. 

“The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a drone ship at sea,” the FAA said.

“No public injuries or public property damage have been reported.”

The rare landing failure occurred early Wednesday morning, after SpaceX successfully launched another batch of 21 Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Florida.

While the satellites were deployed just fine, the Falcon 9 booster appeared to catch fire and tip over when it attempted to land on one of SpaceX’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, according to footage from a SpaceX livestream of the launch. 

It was the first failed rocket landing attempt in more than three years for SpaceX. The Elon Musk-led company said that this particular booster was performing its 23rd launch.

The new investigation comes a little more than a month after the FAA grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9, one of the most world’s most frequently launched rockets, after a failure occurred midflight on July 11.

The FAA ultimately cleared the rocket to return to flight just two weeks later after SpaceX quickly determined the root of the failure.

The grounding is sure to have a ripple effect on SpaceX’s jam-packed launch schedule moving forward.

This week, the company twice delayed the launch of an ambitious crewed spaceflight mission called Polaris Dawn.

That launch will send four private astronauts into space to perform the first commercial spacewalk. SpaceX had to stand down from a launch attempt Wednesday morning due to unfavorable weather.

NASA also recently tapped SpaceX to rescue a pair of the agency’s astronauts currently stuck on the International Space Station, due to technical issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that brought them to the orbiting lab.

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, set to bring the astronauts home, is slated to launch on September 24.

It’s unclear if the FAA’s grounding will impact that schedule.

NASA said in a statement that although the SpaceX Starlink launch was a commercial mission, it “receives insight from SpaceX on all items of interest about the Falcon 9 rocket.”

“The agency will be included in the investigation to understand the issue and path forward,” it said.