In what we have been, Spacex has completed nine releases, eight of them as part of its routine deployment of Starlink satellites. All were successful, but the non -reusable part of one of the rockets ended up resenting without control over Europe. At least one deposit fell into an industrial plant in Poland, without causing damage. Now Spacex has explained what happened.
Complete chronology. On Saturday, February 1, a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex took off from the base of the Vandenberg space force in California. The first stage of the rocket landed successfully for the tenth time, this time on the autonomous barge Of Course I Still Love Youin the Pacific Ocean.
After completing the deployment of 22 Starlink satellites (Group 11-4), the second stage failed to redeem its Merlin engine to exorbitar and continued to spin to the earth until it disintegrate due to the effect of the atmospheric braking. He did it over northern Europe on Wednesday, February 19 between 4:46 and 4:48 in the morning.
At 9:20, an employee of an industrial plant in Poland called the police to warn that they found “a tank that had fallen from heaven” in their facilities. It was identified as a helium tank coated with carbon fiber that came from the second stage of Falcon 9.
Third failure in six months. Spacex ha updated your website to offer an explanation of the failure. During the coastal phase of the mission (that is, when the engine of the second stage is off and the rocket is moving by inertia in space before reaching an objective point), there was a “small leakage of liquid oxygen” . He Third failure of a second stage of Falcon 9 In six months, despite the fact that this part of the rocket is not reused, it is always new.
“Ultimately,” explains Spacex, this leak “caused load rates in the vehicle higher than expected. As a result, after the exploration operations of the mission, no exorbitant ignition was carried out and the vehicle passed with orbit success to eliminate stored energy sources. ” In other words, they emptied him with fuel so that he did not explode, and remained orbit the earth for 18 days.
One of lime and one of sand. On the one hand, it is powerfully attracting the third failure in the upper stage of a Falcon 9 produced by an oxygen leak, a problem that kept Spacex on land for 14 days last year, and then fly again without inconvenience .
On the other, it is still a very uncommon failure for a company that launches rockets two or three times a week, and that always actively exorbit the second stage. 115 of the 116 propulsive exorbitations that Spacex tried in 2024 were successful.
That the remains of the rocket can fall in populated places is precisely the reason why this maneuver is made to direct the redeemer to the ocean. Spacex says he has already implemented new mitigations for future flights while he continues to evaluate the root cause of the fugging source.
Image | Spacex, Adam Borucki