A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 20 Starlink satellites launched from California on Thursday night. The rocket’s upper stage engine failed just minutes later, SpaceX said. The fault was attributed to a liquid oxygen leak.
Space X reported that flight controllers have managed to make contact with half of the Starlink satellites and are attempting to lift them into a higher orbit using their onboard ion thrusters.
The company’s X account said in a statement that “the maximum available thrust may be insufficient to successfully raise the satellites” because their orbits are only 135 kilometers above Earth.
SpaceX said the satellites will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. There is no word on when the satellites will re-enter the atmosphere. More than 6,000 Starlinks are currently in orbit, providing internet service to customers in the most remote corners of the world.
The US Federal Aviation Administration announced that the problem must be fixed before Falcon rockets can fly again.
It is not yet known whether the accident will affect SpaceX’s upcoming crewed flights, which are scheduled to be followed by a NASA astronaut flight to the International Space Station in mid-August after the billionaire’s first private spacewalk from Florida on July 31.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has an “incredible track record” and an emergency escape system, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, who will lead the special flight, said in a statement.
Space X’s last launch failure occurred during a space station unmanned flight in 2015. Another rocket exploded during ground tests the following year.