SpaceX cleared to launch Falcon 9 rocket after rare failure – Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather

(CNN) — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the world’s most productive launch vehicle, is ready to fly again after a mission-ending failure earlier this month during a routine voyage.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and reviews accidents, said Thursday it had determined there were “no public safety issues” when the Falcon 9 failed in orbit on July 11, allowing the rocket to quickly return to flight.

“This public safety decision means the Falcon 9 vehicle may return to service while the general investigation is ongoing, provided all other licensing requirements are met,” the FAA said.

SpaceX has already announced on its website that it will put the Falcon 9 back to work starting Saturday and launch a series of Starlink internet satellites.

If the launch is successful, SpaceX could be on track to return to its routine but critical work of launching astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s 10th such trip — flown on behalf of NASA — is scheduled to launch in August. NASA plans to share updates on the mission today.

SpaceX also has plans to launch a historic private astronaut mission called Polaris Dawn, which will send billionaire philanthropist Jared Isaacman and three crewmates to orbit aboard a Falcon 9 to conduct the first-ever civilian spacewalk. That mission is set to launch as early as July 31.

What happened to Falcon 9?

The Falcon 9, the smallest vehicle in SpaceX’s fleet of rockets, is the linchpin of the U.S. rocket industry. By 2024, it will have flown more than 60 missions. No other rocket comes close to being as active.

Shortly before the accident, a Falcon 9 launched a group of Starlink satellites from California on July 11.

The first part of the mission appeared to go smoothly, with the Falcon 9 using its first-stage booster — the lower part of the rocket with nine engines that provide the initial burst of energy at launch — to propel itself toward space.

But the rocket’s second stage, designed to launch after the first stage fails and carry the satellites to their final destination in space, failed abruptly.

SpaceX later revealed that there had been an oxygen leak in that second stage. (Liquid oxygen, or LOX, is commonly used as an oxidizer or fuel in rockets.) That led to what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at one point described as a “RUD” — or “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” a term SpaceX typically uses to refer to an explosion.

Despite the accident, the satellites were safely launched into space, but they ended up in a much lower orbit than intended, meaning they would likely be quickly pulled out of space by Earth’s gravity.

The FAA, which routinely oversees investigations into such accidents, told CNN in an email that it had determined that “all debris from the anomaly has been returned and there have been no reports of injury to the public or damage to public property.”

SpaceX had asked the FAA on July 15 to evaluate the threat to public safety, allowing the company to resume flying even as the broader investigation — which is intended to determine the “root cause” of the accident and how to fix the problem — is still ongoing.

In a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX said Thursday that it “has submitted our report to the FAA regarding the Falcon 9 launch anomaly, including the probable cause and associated corrective actions.”

The company cited the rocket’s extensive flight history as one of the reasons it is “able to collect unprecedented amounts of flight data and be ready to quickly get back in the air.”