SpaceX\u2019s record-breaking streak of successful launches and landings ended during the third quarter of 2024, having suffered a failure during launch with Falcon 9\u2019s second stage and a Falcon 9 first stage landing failure. More recently, a third issue arose during the disposal of a Falcon 9 second stage after it had successfully completed its mission.<\/p>\n
Despite this, the company was able to carry out missions like Polaris Dawn, its riskiest human spaceflight mission to date, which broke several records and achieved some firsts for SpaceX and worldwide as well. During this period of time, SpaceX\u2019s Starlink also saw the 7,000th satellite launched into orbit and passed four million users worldwide. <\/p>\n
The third quarter was also marked by SpaceX\u2019s preparations for Starship\u2019s fifth flight which has been delayed multiple times due to regulatory approval. The company has also built up a second Starship launch tower at the company\u2019s launch site in Starbase, Texas.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Falcon and Dragon<\/b><\/p>\n
During the third quarter of 2024, SpaceX experienced three different failures of varying nature that slowed down the company\u2019s launch rate from what was previously planned. <\/p>\n
The first failure took place during the launch of the Starlink Group 9-3 mission back in July 2024. While the first stage for that Falcon 9 launch performed nominally and was successfully recovered, the second stage suffered an anomaly during launch that put a batch of 20 Starlink satellites into a rapidly decaying orbit. The company made several efforts to push them into a higher and more stable orbit to save as many as possible but eventually all decayed within a week of the launch. <\/p>\n