Anomaly Leads to Longer Delay of SpaceX Falcon Rocket Launch at Vandenberg
- by Noozhawk
- Oct 01, 2024
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A Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base has been delayed for slightly more than a week because of an abnormality spotted following a Florida flight.
The West Coast mission to deliver 20 OneWeb satellites is set to occur around Oct. 9 because of a problem after another Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida carrying a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station.
“After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn,” SpaceX said in a written statement Saturday. “As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.
“We will resume launching after we better understand root cause.”
While the Falcon’s first-stage booster lands after completing its chores, SpaceX disposes of the second stage in the ocean by using a controlled descent via the deorbit burn.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial missions, said Monday said it was aware of the anomaly and required an investigation.
“The incident involved the Falcon 9 second stage landing outside of the designated hazard area,” the FAA said. “No public injuries or public property damage have been reported.”
The Vandenberg launch had been set to occur late Sunday night and then was delayed until Tuesday at the earliest before being delayed until next week.
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The OneWeb mission is scheduled to include the first-stage booster returning to land at Vandenberg, which generates sonic booms heard in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.
This is the third pause for the company’s busy launch program and the second involving the second stage.
Following a July launch from Vandenberg, the second-stage malfunctioned and left the Starlink satellites in an unusable orbit.
However, the Falcon returned to flight about two weeks later.
It’s not clear whether the newest problem was connected to the issue that doomed the satellites in July.
In late August, after another Florida launch, the first-stage booster toppled upon landing on the droneship, prompting another anomaly brief investigation.
The Vandenberg rocket will add to the OneWeb constellation made up of more than 600 satellites to provide broadband internet service.
For instance, the high-speed, low-latency access via the OneWeb system will aid researchers in Antarctica where historically they have had limited access, according to Eutelsat.
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