The first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed during an attempted landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean last night. The booster had nearly completed its touchdown when it tipped over, dropping into the sea.
It was the first time the company has failed to recover one of the reusable boosters since February 2021, ending a streak of 267 successful landings for the reusable boosters, according to CBS News.
SpaceX posted about the failed mission at 4:04AM ET, writing that the booster “tipped over following touchdown” on what was its 23rd launch. The second stage succeeded in putting a batch of 21 Starlink satellites in orbit, however, 13 of which carry the company’s cellular transmission capability.
SpaceX had planned for back-to-back launches this morning but postponed the second one in order to review data from the botched landing. The setback follows another in July, when the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded the Falcon 9 when a second-stage exploded in July.
Before this morning’s launch, SpaceX had delayed Polaris Dawn, a mission to send four astronauts through the Van Allen radiation belts and attempt the first private astronaut spacewalk. The company cited a poor weather forecast as the reason for the scrubbed launch.
