SpaceX booster of the Starlink mission tips over on return to Earth

Aug. 28 (UPI) – The first stage of a SpaceX Flacon 9 rocket, which was supposed to put another load of Starlink satellites into orbit, apparently tipped into the Atlantic Ocean during re-entry early Wednesday.

The Flacon-9 rocket, carrying a payload of 21 internet satellites, was launched at 3:48 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Space Force Station Cape Canaveral.

After separation, the first stage returned to Earth, but when it touched down on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean, the live broadcast showed it landing in a wave of fire before being ejected from the ship.

The webcast of the launch was subsequently interrupted.

SpaceX later confirmed that the booster, which was on its 23rd mission, had “tipped over.”

“Teams are evaluating flight data and booster status,” it said.

Minutes after confirming the rollover, SpaceX announced that the rocket’s second stage had successfully completed its first burn and would perform a short, two-second burn in about 35 minutes to “put it into the proper deployment orbit.”

The goal of the mission is to add another Starlink satellite to the thousands already in low Earth orbit. Starlink is designed to provide high-speed, low-latency connections worldwide.

The launch came just hours after SpaceX again postponed the historic launch of the four-person Polaris Dawn crew, which is set to fly farther than any human since the end of the Apollo missions.

The launch was scheduled to take place 10 minutes before the Starlink mission, also from Florida, but was canceled due to unfavorable weather forecasts for the Polaris Dawn’s return flight.

Polaris Dawn’s launch was originally scheduled for Monday, but was pushed back to Tuesday when a helium leak made Wednesday’s launch impossible. Now Friday appears to be the next possible launch date.