SpaceX has launched a new series Sterlink internet satellites from California on Thursday, but the engine that powers the rocket’s second stage suffered a catastrophic failure, if not an explosion, while attempting a final “burn” to reach the lowest point of orbit, the company’s founder said. Elon Musk posted on Friday morning on X.
Musk called the anomaly a “RUD,” a tongue-in-cheek acronym that stands for “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”
“Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown,” he said on X. “The team is reviewing the data tonight to determine the cause. Starlink satellites have been deployed, but the perigee (orbital low point) may be too low to raise the orbit. We will know more in a few hours.”
Restart of the upper stage to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown. The team is reviewing the data tonight to determine the cause.
Starlink satellites have been deployed, but the perigee may be too low to raise the orbit. We will know more in a few hours.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 12, 2024
SpaceX later said flight controllers had made contact with five of the 20 Starlinks launched Thursday “and are attempting to boost them into higher orbits using their ion engines.”
Musk added that the Starlink team was busy “updating satellite software to run the ion thrusters at their equivalent of warp 9. Unlike a Star Trek episode, this probably won’t work, but it’s worth a try. The satellite thrusters need to get into orbit faster than atmospheric drag is pulling them down, or they’ll burn up.”
The outage is likely to impact plans to launch entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and three crewmates on a Falcon 9 later this month for a commercial flight that will include the first spacewalks by non-governmental astronauts. It could also affect NASA’s plans to launch a new crew to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule around Aug. 19.
Given SpaceX’s high flight speed and ability to launch its own payloads — Starlinks — the company may be able to recover in the relatively short term. But that remains to be seen.
The Falcon 9, using a first stage for its 19th flight, lifted off from Pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Los Angeles at 10:35 p.m. EDT, climbing through dense fog on a southbound runway. Two and a half minutes later, the first stage separated and flew itself to a successful drone ship landing, while the second stage continued its ascent to space.
SpaceX
Starlink launches require two firings of the vacuum-rated Merlin engine on the second stage. The first firing ended on time, about eight and a half minutes after launch.
Live video from onboard cameras showed dramatic footage of that first second-stage “burn,” with the engine nozzle glowing bright red against the dark backdrop of space. The cameras also showed unusual ice forming on the side of the rocket, along with a steady stream of icy clumps breaking loose and vaporizing in the engine’s fiery but transparent exhaust.
Ice formation on rockets is not unusual, but the amount of ice seen during Thursday’s launch was much greater than in previous flights, likely indicating a problem.
But in accordance with SpaceX policy for Starlink launches, live video and commentary on the X social media platform were halted after the shutdown of the second stage’s first engine was confirmed, approximately eight minutes and 40 seconds after launch.
The company normally posts a payload deployment confirmation after a final 1-second firing of the second stage engine to reach the lowest point of orbit. That burn occurs about 45 minutes after the end of the first firing, followed by payload deployment about seven minutes later, or about 59 minutes after launch. But no such confirmation was posted on X. Musk’s tweet came at 12:35 a.m.
The Falcon 9 is one of the world’s most reliable rockets. Thursday’s launch was SpaceX’s 69th Falcon 9 flight this year and the 354th since the rocket launched in 2010. Prior to the latest launch, SpaceX had fired 344 successful Falcon 9 flights in a row after the company’s only previous failure in 2015.
Prior to Thursday’s flight, SpaceX had launched 6,720 Starlinks in 181 Falcon 9 flights, of which about 6,200 were considered operational, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and space statistician. Losing a batch of Starlinks wouldn’t be a major setback for SpaceX, but it would undoubtedly disrupt the company’s rapid launch sequence.
Company executives said earlier this year that they hoped to operate more than 140 flights this year. Watch more videos from a SpaceX Starlink launch in January below: