{"id":21584,"date":"2024-10-04T20:57:19","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-third-2024-falcon-9-grounding-strengthens-the-need-for-more-competition\/"},"modified":"2024-10-04T20:57:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:57:19","slug":"spacexs-third-2024-falcon-9-grounding-strengthens-the-need-for-more-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-third-2024-falcon-9-grounding-strengthens-the-need-for-more-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s third 2024 Falcon 9 grounding strengthens the need for more competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"Falcon 9 dragon liftoff\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"41557\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/_1191082-enhanced-nr\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"1845,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"SpaceX Crew-9 Falcon 9\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2024\/09\/1191082-Enhanced-NR.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: Steven Madow \/ Space Explored\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX has run into another issue with its Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s second stage, this time having an \u201coff-nominal\u201d reentry burn after Crew-9\u2018s orbit insertion. This comes just a short time ahead of two important science missions for both NASA and ESA that have October launch windows.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-41580\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a short comment on X, SpaceX shared that Crew-9\u2019s second stage \u201cexperienced an off-nominal deorbit burn.\u201d While the stage did successfully orbit and splashdown into the ocean, it looks like something went wrong enough to show up on SpaceX\u2019s end.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Monday, the FAA announced its requirement for an investigation into the anomaly. This means that the Falcon 9, and likely its Falcon Heavy rocket, are grounded for the third time this year until the FAA determines it\u2019s safe to fly again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The timing of this grounding isn\u2019t perfect, as SpaceX has two launches with strict timeframes to get to space. First is ESA\u2019s Hera spacecraft, which will visit the asteroid Didymos and its tiny moon, Dimorphos. These two were recently visited by the NASA DART mission, where it impacted the asteroid in a first-of-its-kind test to change its trajectory around the Sun. Hera will follow up on the asteroid to see if its gravity changed at all.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-41580',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The second mission will be NASA\u2019s Europa Clipper mission to the Jupiter moon Europa. This is one of NASA\u2019s major science missions and will be launching on SpaceX\u2019s Falcon Heavy rocket, which has a similar second stage to the Falcon 9. This important science mission will study the icy moon and confirm whether or not a subsurface ocean exists, and if life is possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ESA is still hoping to make its October 7 launch date and is planning accordingly. The agency has been getting regular updates from SpaceX on the matter and expects to get an okay to launch on October 6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX\u2019s previous two groundings, another second stage failure, and a failed landing kept the rockets grounded for relatively short periods of time. However, this is the second time the second stage has run into problems, and while SpaceX hasn\u2019t shared any details about the issue, if it\u2019s similar to the previous second stage issue, it might complicate things, as it was believed to have been solved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This third grounding strengthens the belief that more than one strong commercial launch provider is needed. With SpaceX unable to launch, that also puts NASA, the Department of Defense, and even international government entities in a position where they are unable to launch most of their missions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ULA\u2019s second Vulcan launch is still set for this Friday, and Blue Origin is gearing up for its first New Glenn mission in November. While ULA\u2019s commercial success is edgy at best, having Blue Origin finally start commercial launches will be a great addition to the industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","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":[],"class_list":["post-21584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21584"}],"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=21584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}