On August 28, 2024, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Crew Dragon elastic capsule was parked at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center before the Polaris Dawn mission in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle may resume flight operations, while an overall investigation into anomalies that occurred during a recent Starlink mission remains ongoing.
SpaceX made a request to return its main vehicle to flight on Thursday, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved it on Friday. The agency said flights may resume “if all other licensing requirements are met.”
Wednesday, FAA grounds Falcon 9 The company was grounded for the second time this year after a failed attempt to return to Earth during a routine Starlink mission.
Earlier on Wednesday, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched a batch of Starlink Internet satellites into orbit from Florida. The rocket’s reusable first-stage booster returned to Earth and attempted to land on a seagoing barge as usual, but crashed into the ocean after a fiery landing.
Grounding of the Falcon 9, the rocket used by much of the Western world to launch satellites and humans into space, is rare. The rocket was previously grounded in July for the first time since 2016. Space second stage failure This doomed a batch of Starlink satellites to failure.
After being grounded in July, SpaceX returned Falcon 9 to flight 15 days later after the FAA approved the company’s request to return to flight quickly.
Falcon 9 is also scheduled to return two NASA astronauts to Earth in late September using the Crew Dragon spacecraft, which will bring the two astronauts home next year Astronauts trapped on the International Space Station After aboard Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft.
SpaceX has built a massive fleet of reusable Falcon boosters since the rocket’s first launch in 2010, allowing the company to far outpace rivals in launch frequency.
Another Starlink mission was scheduled to launch shortly after Wednesday’s launch from another SpaceX launch site in Southern California, but the company canceled the mission after the landing failed.
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