![\"SpaceX](\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/sp_C_638567030606966671.png\")
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SpaceX launched Falcon 9 with 20 Starlink<\/strong> satellites from Space Launch Complex 4E on July 11, 2024, at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Falcon 9\u2019s first stage performed nominally, carrying the second stage and Starlink satellites to orbit, separating from the second stage as expected, and returning to Earth for a successful droneship landing, representing SpaceX\u2019s 329th recovery of an orbital class rocket to-date.<\/p>\n Falcon 9\u2019s second stage performed its first burn nominally, however a liquid oxygen leak developed on the second stage. After a planned relight of the upper stage engine to raise perigee \u2013 or the lowest point of orbit \u2013 the Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn. Although 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. This left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 km, which is less than half the expected perigee altitude.<\/p>\n The team worked overnight to make contact with the satellites in order to send early burn commands, but the satellites were left in an enormously high-drag environment only 135 km above the Earth (each pass through perigee removed 5+ km of altitude from the orbit\u2019s apogee, or the highest point in the satellite orbit). At this level of drag, the maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites. As 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.<\/p>\n This event is a reminder of how technically challenging spaceflight is. To date, SpaceX have completed 364 successful Falcon launches \u2013 safely carrying astronauts, customer payloads and thousands of Starlink satellites to orbit \u2013 making the Falcon family of rockets one of the most reliable in the world. SpaceX will perform a full investigation in coordination with the FAA, determine root cause, and make corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions. With a robust satellite and rocket production capability, and a high launch cadence, we\u2019re positioned to rapidly recover and continue our pace as the world\u2019s most active launch services provider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SpaceX launched Falcon 9 with 20 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 4E on July 11, 2024, at Vandenberg Space Force Base. Falcon 9\u2019s first stage performed nominally, carrying the second stage and Starlink satellites to orbit, separating from the second stage as expected, and returning to Earth for a successful droneship landing, representing SpaceX\u2019s […]<\/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":[26,25,54,20],"class_list":["post-6714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-launch","tag-launch-vehicle-platforms","tag-satellite"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714"}],"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=6714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}