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SpaceX ’s iconic Falcon 9 rocket engine have been grounded for the third time in the last three months after part of the rocket uncontrollably clangor - shore in the ocean .
The rocket was carrying a capsule to be used in the " delivery charge " that will eventually bring home the astronauts who have been stranded on theInternational Space Station(ISS ) since June . The capsule itself made it to the ISS as planned , but other issues with the mission have prompted an investigation .
The Falcon 9 rocket currently under investigation lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday (Sept. 28).
At 1:17 p.m. EDT on Saturday ( Sept. 28 ) , SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket engine from Florida ’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station . The rocket was express two cosmonaut — NASA ’s Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — to the ISS inside one of the caller ’s Dragon space vehicle capsule , according to Live Science ’s sister siteSpace.com .
That same ejector seat will also send stranded NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth in February 2025 . Wilmore and Williams have been stuck onboard the ISS since June 5 aftermultiple issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraftthat delivered them into space . These upset turned a planned calendar week - longsighted mission into what willnow be an eight - month stayon the space station . ( The compromised Starliner abridgment has sincelanded back on Earth without any passenger . )
colligate : SpaceX rockets keep tearing line of descent - red ' atmospheric hole ' in the sky , and scientists are bear on
The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov successfully docked with the ISS as planned.
Saturday ’s SpaceX military mission largely went to plan . The rocket engine ’s reusable first - stage booster successfully severalise from the 2d stage and by and by landed back on Earth . The second microscope stage then deploy the Dragon abridgment , which went on to bob with the ISS as expected — and the capsule should be able to come back Wilmore and Williams to Earth in just over four month .
However , following the deployment of the condensation , the skyrocket ’s 2nd stage live an " off - nominative deorbit burn " as it develop to reenter Earth ’s atmosphere , which have the booster amplifier to set down in the ocean " outside of its target disposition area,“Space.com reported .
As a resultant role , the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) has begun an investigating into what happened , consort to anFAA statement . While the probe is ongoing , SpaceX can not launch any more Falcon 9 rockets .
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These rockets have already been ground by FAA investigations twice this year : First on July 11 , when one of the rocketsprematurely released 20 Starlink satellitesthat fell back to Earth ; and secondly on Aug. 28 , when a reusable first - stage boosterexploded while landing back on Earthfollowing anotherStarlinklaunch .
The FAAsimilarly establish SpaceX ’s super heavy spaceship rocketin April 2023 , when the monolithic ballistic capsule exploded just four minute after launching and scatter detritus on the ground below .
Despite recent grounding , Falcon 9 rockets commonly have an excellent success rate . To date , the rocket have been successfully launched into spacemore than 99 % of the timeover the last 14 years .
