SpaceX grounds Falcon 9 flights after second-stage issue

[Mr. Sparkle]

Source: Reuters

Elon Musk's SpaceX has paused flights of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket over an unspecified issue that its second stage experienced after successfully deploying Starlink satellites into orbit on Monday, the company said.

After the two-stage Falcon 9 delivered 25 Starlink satellites to space in a routine mission from southern California, the rocket's second stage "experienced an off-nominal condition" as it prepared to deorbit itself as planned, SpaceX wrote on X, adding the rocket stage emptied all its remaining fuel as designed following a mishap.

"Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight," SpaceX said. Falcon 9 is the world's most active rocket - it launched 165 times in 2025, most of them in-house SpaceX missions to expand its Starlink constellation. A mission failure in 2024 that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites was SpaceX's first such failure with the rocket since 2016.

Monday's mission was not a mission failure. But a problem with the rocket's second stage, if unchecked, could risk future satellite deliveries to orbit or endanger populated areas if the vehicle fails to properly dispose of itself. Falcon 9's second stage body is designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere after boosting payloads into orbit, using its engines to target a reentry zone away from populated areas should any components survive deorbit.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spacex-grounds-falcon-9-flights-after-second-stage-issue-2026-02-03/

[3825-87867]

1. Really Sad when...

65 years ago, (book) educated scientists, engineers and workers of the time could put together a program that would take man to the moon, land robots on Mars, circle Venus, send Voyager beyond the Solar System to mention a few fantastic accomplishments, yet today, with all the supposed better training, education, equipment and super computers all put together by the World's Richest man, they can't hold a candle to those pioneers of the 60s through 90s than those today with more finances available, the best computers and supposedly better educated people.

But hey, in today's more ultra modern world, we have the capability to access almost anything we want from our "phones"...but we watch anything except what might educate us.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. Righteous. Stay encouraged, 3825-87867. ❤️

[llmart]

4. There are still plenty of those people at NASA.

No need to paint everyone with a broad brush. Artemis II is expected to launch this week if the weather at Kennedy Space Center cooperates. The launch has been pushed back two days because of the cold temps. My son is a NASA engineer on the Artemis program and they've been working almost around the clock in making sure everything goes AOK.

A crew of four astronauts will orbit the moon, but not only "man". It's a crew of four including one woman, and the launch director for Artemis is the first woman to hold that honor. The amount of education and experience and genius level intellect at NASA is amazing.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. .

[Mustellus]

5. and SpaceX is about....

... the only launch provider who systematically disposes of its orbiting second stage. This is important to reign in the buildup of debris in low earth orbit. (And I say this even though I'm following the allegations against Musk)

[bobalew]

6. Musk's test methodology " break it until it works"

is an extension of his acute personality disorder. Eventually he will kill innocent people, if he hasn't already done so....