3 October 2024 The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the uncontrolled reentry of part of a Falcon 9 rocket that delivered passengers to the International Space Station in a capsule that will return stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth next year. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The Falcon 9 rocket currently under investigation lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Saturday (Sept. 28). (Image credit: SpaceX) SpaceX's iconic Falcon 9 rockets have been grounded for the third time in the last three months after part of the rocket uncontrollably crash-landed in the ocean. The rocket was carrying a capsule to be used in the "rescue mission" that will eventually bring home the astronauts who have been stranded on the International 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. At 1:17 p.m. EDT on Saturday (Sept. 28), SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket was carrying two astronauts — NASA's Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov — to the ISS inside one of the company's Dragon spacecraft capsules, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. That same capsule will also transport 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 after multiple issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that delivered them into space. These upsets turned a planned week-long mission into what will now be an eight-month stay on the space station. (The compromised Starliner capsule has since landed back on Earth without any passengers.)