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SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster 1086 tipped over droneship after a successful landing

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4 weeks ago

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SpaceX Falcon 9 Booster Landing

On Sunday, March 2, SpaceX launched a new Falcon 9 rocket with 21 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit, everything went well from start to finish but the first stage booster (1086) was tipped over the droneship after completing a successful landing.

The company lifted off the rocket at 9:24 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The nine Merline engines fired at full power to leave the ground and achieve Max Q in minutes, followed by hot-staging.

The first stage boostback to its landing trajectory and the second stage fired its engines to lead the mission into orbit where it deployed 21 Starlink satellites including 13 Direct to Cell capabilities.

Before satellite deployment, the first stage was showing a normal telemetry. The live stream also confirmed all operations as the booster makes its way to the landing site in the Atlantic Ocean – 250 nautical miles off the coast of Florida.

In the last few seconds, the first stage fired its landing legs while exhausting its final burn to slow down, and the grid fins were also working fine. The SpaceX verified all milestones before ending the broadcast.

SpaceX has explained that an off-nominal fire in the aft end of the rocket damaged one of the booster’s landing legs, which caused the booster to lose grip on the droneship and fall off the ground.

It is confirmed that the team will assess launch data and improve the rocket design for future launch and landing to prevent such an incident in future missions.

This was the fifth flight for the first stage booster and it previously supported GOES-U, Maxar 3, and three Starlink missions including the latest.

Kiko Dontchev, VP of Launch at SpaceX explains Falcon 9 Booster 1086 tipped over the droneship

Kiko Dontchev, VP of Launch at SpaceX on Falcon 9 Booster 1086 loss (Source – X)

Investigation

FAA might get involved and oversee the investigation. Until then, it may ground new Falcon 9 launches but it would be only for a short duration as none of these scenarios occurred during the launch or landing phase.

(source)

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Timothy started learning about game development and electronics at the age of 17. After involvement in different projects, he switched to Android app development and began pursuing smart hardware mechanics. Later on, he became fond of writing and tech journalism. Timothy covers major topics about internet personality, business, EV, Space, Social Media, and more. He loves to watch survival videos and try to find out new facts about the ocean and animals.

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