SpaceX Rocket Tips Over & Crashes On Ship In Another Rare, Fiery Mishap

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In another rare mishap, a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster collapsed on the recovery drone ship just moments back after sending the firm's latest batch of Starlink satellites to orbit. The booster, as per SpaceX, was a veteran rocket as it had conducted its 23rd launch today before unfortunately being unable to maintain its orientation after landing on the firm's A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship. This was the first booster to launch 23 times, and footage from SpaceX's live stream showed the rocket landing successfully but failing to bear its weight before eventually tipping over on the drone ship.

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Today's launch marked SpaceX's 83rd mission of the year, and it came moments after the firm had originally planned to fly the Polaris Dawn mission to space. Polaris Dawn is SpaceX's most ambitious flight to date, and it will see a crew of four reach the highest altitude in Earth orbit after the Apollo era of the 1970s. The Falcon 9 launch took place from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with the rocket flying for a record 23rd time and aiming to land on SpaceX's A Shortfall of Gravitas drone ship located nearby.

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The launch itself was a standard affair, as the rocket successfully lifted off from the Cape at 3:38 a.m. local time. Roughly a minute after launch, the rocket reached maximum air pressure, after which it cruised for another minute before the second stage's Merlin vacuum engine lit up, and the stage separated from the first stage rocket.

At close to the eight minute and twenty second mark post lift off, the Falcon 9 booster approached SpaceX's drone ship. All appeared to go well by this point as the rocket