It was only about 10 days ago that the Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage failed in flight, preventing the rocket from delivering its 20 Starlink satellites into a proper orbit. Because they were released lower than expected—about 135 km above the Earth’s surface and subject to atmospheric drag—these satellites ultimately reentered the planet’s atmosphere and burnt up.
Typically, after a launch failure, a rocket will be sidelined for months while engineers and technicians comb over the available data and debris to identify a cause, perform tests, and institute a fix.
However, according to multiple sources, SpaceX was ready to launch the Falcon 9 rocket as soon as late last week. Currently, the company has a launch opportunity for no earlier than 12:14 am ET (04:14 UTC) on Wednesday for its Starlink 10-4 mission.
A quick fix?
In a summary of the anomaly posted shortly afterward, SpaceX did not identify the cause of the failure beyond saying, “The Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn.”
Officially, the company has provided no additional information since then. However, the company’s engineers were able to identify the cause of the failure almost immediately and, according to sources, the fix was straightforward.
SpaceX was confident enough in this determination to resume launches of the Falcon 9 rocket one week after the failure. However, it is precluded from doing so while the US Federal Aviation Administration conducts a mishap investigation.
