The internet satellites launched by SpaceX are in an extremely low orbit, destined to burn up as they plummet through the atmosphere, following the first failure of a SpaceX rocket in nearly a decade.
On Thursday night, 20 Starlink satellites were launched into orbit by the Falcon 9 rocket, which took off from California. After a few minutes in the air, the engine on the top stage broke down. A liquid oxygen leak was the reason given by SpaceX on Friday.
Flight controllers tried to use the satellites’ inbuilt ion thrusters to raise half of them to a higher orbit, according to the business. “Our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” the business claimed via X, because their low-end orbit is only 84 miles (135 kilometers) above Earth, which is less than half of what was expected.
The satellites will supposedly burn up as they reenter the atmosphere, according to SpaceX. The potential arrival time was not specified. Currently, clients in some of the most remote corners of the world can access the internet through over 6,000 orbiting Starlinks.
The FAA has stated that Falcon rockets cannot take to the skies until the issue is resolved.
Whether or whether the accident will affect SpaceX’s forthcoming crew flights was unclear. On July 31, a millionaire will launch from Florida on what will be the first private spacewalk. In mid-August, astronauts will fly to the International Space Station for NASA.
The private flight’s leader, software entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, boasted Friday about SpaceX’s Falcon 9’s “an incredible track record” and its emergency escape capability.
In 2015, on a cargo flight to the space station, the last launch failed. The following year, while conducting ground testing, yet another rocket went boom.
According to Elon Musk of SpaceX, the high flight rate will facilitate problem identification and correction.
