Saturday, July 13, 2024

FAA grounds Falcon 9 after engine explodes mid-flight

 HEY, SPACE PLACERS!

A rusty orange rocket body in space, with the curved of Earth visible.

A screenshot from the July 11, 2024, livestream of a Falcon 9 launch shows the rockeet that failed and resulted in falling Starlink satellites. The flight marked the first mission failure for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 7 years. 

Image via SpaceX livestream.

Now people will realize that you need multiple ways to get to space!

With Falcon 9 grounded there is no US access for NASA International Space Station (ISS) crews to get to space and back except for Russia's (YES, THAT RUSSIA THAT INVADED UKRAINE) Soyuz at a possible (my estimate) cost per seat of $100 million????? And that's IF Putin allows it.

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is essentially grounded at ISS with 2 astronauts in limbo - but working and helping out on ISS -while NASA and Boeing work through the thruster issue. It is highly probable that Boeing will have more work to do to get Starliner certified for human flight.

And now the uber reliable Falcon 9 that was due to launch NASA's next crew to the ISS next month is grounded until further notice. It will take months -at a minimum - to determine why the 2nd stage blew up in space and then get it re-certified to fly cargo and humans once again.

Quite the predicament for NASA human spaceflight......

Sky Guy in VA

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