SpaceX’s Falcon 9 grounded after launching rescue mission to ISS

SpaceX grounded its Falcon 9 rocket after the launcher used for a rescue mission to bring back two stranded astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) suffered a malfunction on its return to Earth.

The rocket propelled the Crew-9 mission into orbit on Saturday with two empty seats on a Dragon capsule to bring back Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the test pilots stranded on the ISS since their defective Starliner spacecraft flew back without them. 

The issue with Falcon 9 came during the deorbit part of the mission, when a spacecraft falls back into the atmosphere after leaving orbit. 

The company said they experienced an “off-nominal” burn where the craft landed outside of its pre-targeted area. 

“We will resume launching after we better understand root cause,” SpaceX said in a post on X. 

This is the third time since this summer that SpaceX has found issues with its launcher, which is the most used rocket in the world.  

In July, engineers found a liquid oxygen leak in the engine during a routine launch. The ship was grounded though for just two weeks before taking flight again. 

By August, the ship’s booster came down hot and was destroyed upon landing in the ocean. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) let SpaceX continue to launch that craft while an investigation was underway. 

The Falcon 9’s grounding this time around could impact a European Space Agency (ESA) mission called Hera that was supposed to launch on October 7 in Florida, according to a pre-launch registration. 

Euronews Next has reached out to the ESA for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.