SpaceX’s Rocket Engine Explodes In Space – Satellites Unlikely To Survive Says Musk

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In a rare development today, SpaceX's Falcon 9 second stage failed in space as part of its latest Starlink launch. Footage from SpaceX's live stream showed unusual ice buildup on the second stage, and after the end of the stream, the firm confirmed that the rocket had failed to perform according to the mission profile. SpaceX chief Elon Musk added that the engine had experienced a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD) in orbit, and while SpaceX was trying to reconfigure its Starlink satellites to allow them to follow the mission profile, it was unlikely that the spacecraft would reach their intended orbital destination.

SpaceX'x Falcon 9 Second Stage Malfunctions In Space - Starlink Satellites Unlikely To Reach Orbital Destination

The Falcon 9 took off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California late at night Eastern time yesterday with a batch of 20 Starlink satellites. As SpaceX continues to develop its Starlink network and expand coverage options, it has also teamed up with telecommunications carriers to allow users to communicate directly with the satellites through their phones. For these features, it has been regularly launching direct to cell Starlink satellites too, and today's launch featured another batch of 13 direct to cell satellites.

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While the launch itself was a standard affair, with the Falcon 9 lifting off and then landing on SpaceX's drone ship to complete SpaceX's 70th launch for 2024, the second stage's performance during the mission's latter half didn't go according to plan. During some of its satellite launches, SpaceX has to fire the second stage Merlin vacuum engine multiple times to raise altitude. Today's launch was one such mission, and the first sign of trouble appeared at roughly eight minutes