Until then, SpaceX has decided to take a break from its launches, the duration of which has not been specified.
A non-optional survey
The Spacex – NASA Crew 9 mission took off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Saturday September 28. However, although the initial objective was a success, an anomaly was reportedly encountered by a Falcon-9 rocket during launch. As Space.com relays, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is demanding an investigation.
Indeed, the upper stage of the rocket would have encountered a problem after the deployment of the capsule, due to a “off-nominal deorbit combustion”. The course of this upper stage, which is not reusable, ended up in the ocean.
A risky anomaly
“The FAA is aware that an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX NASA Crew-9 mission launched from the Cape Canaveral space station in Florida on September 28. The incident involved the second stage of the Falcon 9 landing outside the designated area. No public injuries or damage to public property were reported. The FAA demands an investigation.” the federal agency said in a press release.
Non-optional, this investigation of Space X will be supervised by the FAA. Pending the conclusions of the Government Agency, Elon Musk's company specializing in the field of astronautics and space flight will suspend its launches.
A big launch program for SpaceX
A suspension which is not insignificant when we know SpaceX's always very busy launch program. Additionally, high-profile missions are expected to take place shortly, such as NASA's Europa Clipper, where a probe is to be launched to a moon of Jupiter, Europa.
As Space.com relays, this is the third problem encountered by this rocket in less than three months for the company. A loss of 20 Starlink satellites was caused on July 11 while a “liquid oxygen leak occurred in the upper stage of the rocket”.
The Spacex Dragon capsule docked on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time as reported by the BBC. It had on board NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov, Crew 9. After a series of checks, the space station crew was finally able to open the hatch and properly welcome the Dragon astronauts.
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