For the first time since 2015, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket failed to launch a satellite. The first stage took off and landed successfully, but the second-stage engine exploded as it ignited. This may have rendered twenty Starlink satellites unusable.

The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 4:35 a.m. Dutch time. The rocket is carrying 20 Starlink satellites. The launch appeared successful at first, with the Falcon 9 rocket taking off successfully and landing vertically on a ship in the ocean a few minutes later. The problem came about an hour after launch, when the Merlin engine on the second stage had to be re-fired to put the satellites into the correct orbit.

The live broadcast of the launch had ended by then, but SpaceX confirms X The second-stage engine “failed to complete its second ignition,” the company said. “As a result, the Starlink satellites entered a lower Earth orbit than planned.”

SpaceX founder Elon Musk He says in another post The engine has been “rodded”. Unscheduled rapid disassembly It’s SpaceX’s code for an explosion or other failure. The company says it’s still investigating what went wrong. Musk says the satellites are in orbit, but they’re too low to reach the correct orbit. Musk admits There is a small chance that this will continue to work..

The failed launch is unique to SpaceX. The company hasn’t had a launch that wasn’t successful, at least not on an operational flight, since June 2015. That time, a Falcon rocket carrying the Dragon capsule exploded. Since then, the company has only completed successful launches with the Falcon 9, which holds the record for most launches to its name. In 2024 alone, the company has launched 69 Falcon rockets. This was the 354th Falcon 9 launch and the first failure in 335 launches.

Watch Falcon 9 launch 20 @starlink Satellites into orbit from California, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities https://t.co/aXuY7ZXXrO

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 12, 2024