{"id":21040,"date":"2026-02-04T20:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-delays-falcon-9-launches-after-upper-stage-deorbit-failure\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T12:40:54","slug":"spacex-delays-falcon-9-launches-after-upper-stage-deorbit-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-delays-falcon-9-launches-after-upper-stage-deorbit-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX Delays Falcon 9 Launches After Upper-Stage Deorbit Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX has delayed upcoming Falcon 9 launches after the rocket\u2019s upper stage failed to initiate a planned deorbit burn following a recent mission from California, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>The issue occurred after a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, where the rocket successfully deployed 25 Starlink satellites into orbit. According to SpaceX, the second stage experienced an engine-related anomaly during preparations for the deorbit burn, preventing it from re-entering Earth\u2019s atmosphere as intended.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring today\u2019s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites, the second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn,\u201d SpaceX said in a statement posted on X. \u201cThe first two MVac burns were nominal and safely deployed all 25 Starlink satellites to their intended orbit. Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=2018485314508198331&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspacemagz.com%2Fspacex-delays-falcon-9-launches-after-upper-stage-deorbit-failure%2F&amp;sessionId=4029fb6eaefa8be5be2a3b4c59f1cab871ec4f3b&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782966700265951257=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">During today\u2019s Falcon 9 launch of @Starlink satellites, the second stage experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn. The vehicle then&nbsp;performed&nbsp;as designed to successfully passivate the stage.&nbsp;The first two MVac burns were nominal and safely\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 3, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Following the failed deorbit attempt, and in coordination with the United States Space Force, the Falcon 9 upper stage from the Starlink 17-32 mission was catalogued as orbital object 67673 to enable tracking. Space Force officials said the stage was expected to re-enter the atmosphere relatively quickly due to its low orbit, though SpaceX has not confirmed whether re-entry has already occurred.<\/p>\n<p>As a precaution, SpaceX has paused other Falcon 9 launches while engineers analyze flight data and assess potential corrective actions across the fleet. The review has forced a delay to the next scheduled Falcon 9 mission, which had been planned for Feb. 5 from Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<p>Falcon 9 is the workhorse of SpaceX\u2019s launch operations, supporting both commercial missions and the rapid deployment of its Starlink broadband constellation. Launch pauses following in-flight anomalies are standard practice, allowing the company to identify root causes before resuming flight operations.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX has delayed upcoming Falcon 9 launches after the rocket\u2019s upper stage failed to initiate a planned deorbit burn following a recent mission from California, the company said. The issue occurred after a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, where the rocket successfully deployed 25 Starlink satellites into orbit. According to SpaceX, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21041,"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":[479,5812,7671,316,440,5841,6454,778],"class_list":["post-21040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-falcon-9","tag-north-america","tag-space-launch-anomaly","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-space-force","tag-vandenberg-space-force-base"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21040"}],"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=21040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}