US FAA grounds SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket after second-stage malfunction
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
-The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Monday said SpaceX must investigate why the second stage of
its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket malfunctioned after a NASA astronaut mission on Saturday, grounding the
rocket for the third time in three months.
After SpaceX on Saturday launched two astronauts to
the International Space Station for NASA, the rocket body that had boosted the crew further into space
failed to properly re-light its engine for its "deorbit burn," a routine procedure that discards the
booster into the ocean after completing its flight.
The astronaut crew carried on to the ISS
safely, docking on Sunday as planned. The FAA said there were no injuries or property damage linked to
the booster mishap.
The malfunction caused the booster to fall into a region of the Pacific
Ocean outside of the designated safety zone that the FAA approved for the mission.
SpaceX said
the booster "experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the
ocean, but outside of the targeted area."
"We will resume launching after we better understand
root cause," SpaceX wrote in a post on X.
Warren Buffett(3363)
