Falcon 9 remains grounded again pending investigation – upcoming launch of Polaris Dawn in danger

On August 28, a Falcon 9 rocket experienced an unexpected failure as the launch vehicle landed after its journey into space. No injuries have been reported since it landed on an autonomous barge at sea, but the Federal Aviation Administration has grounded the rocket pending an investigation and SpaceX has postponed a second launch scheduled for last night.

This particular launch was designed to deploy the mega-constellation of Starlink satellites, which were successfully placed into orbit, but it could have negative impacts on two manned missions: the private Polaris Dawn mission and the Crew-9 launch to the International Space Station.

“The FAA is aware that an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 28,” the FAA wrote in a statement. “The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle while landing on a drone ship at sea. No injuries or damage to public property were reported. The FAA is requesting an investigation.”

A press release said that the resumption of flight operations would not occur until the FAA determined that there was no threat to public safety. A similar grounding was already in place in July – at that time it was the second stage that did not complete its second burn. The grounding lasted two weeks.

Polaris Dawn was originally scheduled to launch on Tuesday, August 27, but due to poor weather conditions predicted for reentry, the launch has been delayed until at least tomorrow. There have been no public posts about the investigation into the Polaris program or SpaceX, so it is currently unclear how long the delay will last. Polaris Dawn will conduct the first private spacewalk, breaking a number of records in the process.