Elisha Sauers Elisha Sauers writes about space for Mashable, taking deep dives into NASA's moon and Mars missions, chatting up astronauts and history-making discoverers, and jetting above the clouds. Through 17 years of reporting, she's covered a variety of topics, including health, business, and government, with a penchant for public records requests. She previously worked for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia, and The Capital in Annapolis, Maryland. Her work has earned numerous state awards, including the Virginia Press Association's top honor, Best in Show, and national recognition for narrative storytelling. For each year she has covered space, Sauers has won National Headliner Awards, including first place for her Sex in Space series. Send space tips and story ideas to [email protected] Share on Flipboard A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, one of the company's workhorses, flies on a Starlink mission in March 2023. Credit: SpaceX SpaceX can't launch its busiest rockets following a rare mishap during a routine flight late Thursday night. The flight was supposed to place 20 new Starlink satellites into space, which provide internet access to some of the most remote places in the world. One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets experienced a failure, after lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 11. The beginning of the flight was livestreamed on X, the social platform owned by SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk, but the broadcast apparently ended before the incident happened. Though Musk originally said the rocket's upper stage engine had experienced a "RUD" — slang for a vehicle breaking apart or failing. In a statement, SpaceX said that the rocket had survived, but the Starlink satellites it carried weren't delivered correctly to orbit. You May Also Like The botched mission means the satellites will inevitably burn up or crash back to Earth, according to the statement posted on the company's website on Friday. SpaceX did not say when or where they were expected to return. SEE ALSO: