{"id":10068,"date":"2024-07-16T22:33:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T14:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-requests-public-safety-determination-for-early-return-to-flight-for-its-falcon-9-rocket\/"},"modified":"2024-07-16T22:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T14:33:58","slug":"spacex-requests-public-safety-determination-for-early-return-to-flight-for-its-falcon-9-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-requests-public-safety-determination-for-early-return-to-flight-for-its-falcon-9-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX requests public safety determination for early return to flight for its Falcon 9 rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_66735\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-66735\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66735\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240712-Starlink-8-3-Upper-Stage.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240712-Starlink-8-3-Upper-Stage.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240712-Starlink-8-3-Upper-Stage-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-66735\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An unusual build up of ice on the second stage of the Falcon 9 that launched the Starlink 9-3 mission. Image: SpaceX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX is seeking to resume launching its Falcon 9 rocket soon. In a statement to Spaceflight Now, the Federal Aviation Administration said the company was seeking a public safety determination.<\/p>\n<p>That request was submitted to the FAA on July 15, according to the agency. If approved, it would allow SpaceX to resume launching its Falcon 9 rocket while the mishap investigation into the Starlink 9-3 anomaly continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FAA is reviewing the request and will be guided by data and safety at every step of the process,\u201d the FAA said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Following liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 11, the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage experienced a liquid oxygen leak, which prevented it from circularizing its orbit prior to releasing the 20 Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8rdXkjH3AMw\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That request was submitted to the FAA on July 15, according to the agency. If approved, it would allow SpaceX to resume launching its Falcon 9 rocket while the mishap investigation into the Starlink 9-3 anomaly continues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FAA is responsible for and committed to protecting the public during commercial space transportation launch and reentry operations,\u201d the FAA said in a statement. \u201cThe FAA is reviewing the request and will be guided by data and safety at every step of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following liftoff from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 11, the Falcon 9\u2019s second stage experienced a liquid oxygen leak, which prevented it from circularizing its orbit prior to releasing the 20 Starlink satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA has two means of allowing a rocket to return to flight operations following a mishap. The first is that it approves a launch operator-led mishap investigation final report, which would include \u201cthe identification of any corrective actions.\u201d Those actions need to be put in place and all related licensing requirement need to be met.<\/p>\n<p>The other option is for a public safety determination to be issued. This would be an option if \u201cthe mishap did not involve safety-critical systems or otherwise jeopardize public safety,\u201d according to the FAA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FAA will review the request, and if in agreement, authorize a return to flight operations while the mishap investigation remains open and provided the operator meets all relevant licensing requirements,\u201d the FAA wrote on its website.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Starlink 9-3 anomaly, SpaceX described its preliminary findings on its website, noting that the liquid oxygen leak prevented the Merlin vacuum engine on the upper stage from completing its second burn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough the stage survived and still deployed the satellites, it did not successfully circularize its orbit, but it did passivate itself as normally performed at the end of each mission,\u201d SpaceX wrote on July 12. \u201cThis left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 km, which is less than half the expected perigee altitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,\u201d SpaceX added. \u201cAs such, the satellites will re-enter Earth\u2019s atmosphere and fully demise. They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the FAA agrees with SpaceX\u2019s determination, the Falcon 9 could resuming launching. The company has tentative plans to launch both the Starlink 10-4 and Starlink 10-9 missions from its two launchpads in Florida later this week. This would be pending the approval of the FAA, of course.<\/p>\n<p>That said, SpaceX may have to wait until the investigation is complete before it resumes launching customer and government missions, like the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft or the Crew-9 astronaut flight.<\/p>\n<p>Following the anomaly, NASA issued a statement noting that it receives \u201cinsight from SpaceX on all items of interest about the Falcon 9 rocket, as part of the agency\u2019s fleet following.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCrew safety and mission assurance are top priorities for NASA. SpaceX has been forthcoming with information and is including NASA in the company\u2019s ongoing anomaly investigation to understand the issue and path forward,\u201d NASA said in a June 12 statement. \u201cNASA will provide updates on agency missions including potential schedule impacts, if any, as more information becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spaceflight Now reached out to NASA, asking if it required the SpaceX-led, FAA involved mishap investigation to be completed before NASA missions resume using the Falcon 9 rocket. This story will be updated when a response is received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An unusual build up of ice on the second stage of the Falcon 9 that launched the Starlink 9-3 mission. Image: SpaceX. SpaceX is seeking to resume launching its Falcon 9 rocket soon. In a statement to Spaceflight Now, the Federal Aviation Administration said the company was seeking a public safety determination. That request was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[479,316,1335],"class_list":["post-10068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-falcon-9","tag-spacex","tag-starlink-9-3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}