SpaceX pausing launches to study Falcon 9 issue on Crew-9 astronaut mission

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"We will resume launching after we better understand root cause."

a black and white rocket launches into a cloudy blue sky
A Falcon 9 rocket launches SpaceX's Crew-9 astronaut mission to the International Space Station on Sept. 28, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX has temporarily grounded its Falcon 9 rocket after the vehicle experienced an issue on the Crew-9 astronaut launch for NASA.

Crew-9 lifted off on Saturday (Sept. 28) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, sending NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov aloft aboard the Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom."

Everything appeared to go well. The Falcon 9's first stage aced its landing shortly after liftoff, and the rocket's upper stage deployed Freedom into its proper orbit; the capsule is on track to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 29) as planned. 

But the upper stage experienced an issue after completing that job, SpaceX announced early Sunday morning.

"After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9's second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area. We will resume launching after we better understand root cause," SpaceX wrote in a post on X.

Related: SpaceX Crew-9 astronaut mission: Live updates

Indeed, a Falcon 9 had been scheduled to launch 20 broadband satellites for the company Eutelsat OneWeb from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday night, but that liftoff has been postponed. 

The Crew-9 incident was the second Falcon 9 upper-stage issue to crop up in less than three months. On July 11, the rocket experienced a leak of liquid oxygen in its upper stage during the launch of 20 of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites. As a result, the spacecraft were deployed too low and ended up being lost.

SpaceX traced that anomaly to a cracked line for a pressure sensor in the upper stage's liquid-oxygen system. The Falcon 9 returned to flight after just two weeks, acing a mission on July 27.

The rocket was grounded again after a first stage failed to land successfully during an Aug. 28 mission, which went well otherwise. This hiatus was even briefer: The Falcon 9 flew two successful missions just three days later, sticking the landings as well. 

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Crew-9 is sending Hague and Gorbunov to the ISS for a roughly five-month stay. The duo will return to Earth in February along with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who arrived at the orbiting lab in June aboard Boeing's Starliner capsule.

Starliner came home without them earlier this month; the capsule had suffered thruster issues in orbit, and NASA ultimately deemed a crewed return to Earth with the spacecraft too risky. So the agency modified Crew-9's manifest, taking two astronauts off the launch to make room for Wilmore and Williams on Freedom for the downward leg.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Maat Chu
    Wind?
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    It will be interesting to see how the FAA handles this. Because the deorbit burn did not keep the second stage impact point within the predicted area, they could reasonably say that it might be a public safety problem. However, the "public" on that part of Earth is limited to a few boats and ships making very long passages across the Pacific Ocean - which is the reason it has been chosen as the international dumping ground for unwanted space hardware.

    On the other hand, I think it is wise for SpaceX to stand down Falcon 9 launches while it figures out why it has had 2 second stage rocket motor anomalous burns in the past 2 months.

    But, that still is a lot less risky to the public than the recent tail rudder lockups during landings that have been occurring on Boeing 737s, and those are not grounded by the FAA, even though they carry passengers and fly over extremely densely populated areas, especially during landings.
    Reply
  • ultimatewizz
    The FAA does not need to be involved since they have to rely on SpaceX for the answer any way. SpaceX sees a problem stops and fixes it all on its own. They do not want mistakes to cost them money in the future. It is how they operate. Boeing has a problem and doesn't even know the cause because they build their test equipment on computers and SpaceX has all the information because it is all on the rockets. From conception to completion all their equipment is test live with monitors on board.
    Reply
  • Justin Willoughby
    Perhaps, the reduced weight of the 2 less meat sacks onboard the spacecraft made for a different amount of fuel aboard the second stage during the de-orbit burn, resulting in and off-target landing.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    Probably not the issue. For one thing, I think it overshot its landing zone, which means it cut off early, and did not achieve the intended velocity reduction. If the intended burn had not properly accounted for the reduced total craft weight, tt would have undershot the planned landing area, instead of overshooting it.
    Reply
  • ultimatewizz
    I don't know how many people are noticing but anything about Tesla or SpaceX not only get s front page but it stays there for weeks and often months. Just saw another article about the piece of debris landing in North Carolina back in May. In this case SpaceX grounded long before the FAA got around to saying it. SpaceX unlike Boeing does not have to go out in the desert and try to figure their problems. Boeing still hasn't come up with a definite cause for the problem with their capsules thrusters. SpaceX makes their equipment through trial and error with on board sensors, so they will solve this quickly and easily. 4 billion to build it while SpaceX had 2 billion to develope and build their Dragon capsule which is working well for 4 years now.
    Reply