SpaceX loses a Falcon 9 booster and scrubs a Starship

Reusable first stage of workhorse tips over after landing

March 3 was a tough day for SpaceX. The company was forced to scrub flight test 8 of its monster Starship rocket and also lost a Falcon 9 first stage, which landed then caught fire and tipped over.

While Starship is still in development, SpaceX has suffered a run of misfortunes with its Falcon 9 workhorse.

The latest problem with the first stage of the Falcon 9 happened during an overnight launch from Florida – a mission to add another 21 Starlink satellites to the network. Thirteen of those satellites, incidentally, had Direct-to-Cell capability. The launch itself went well, and the Starlinks were successfully deployed. This time, the second stage didn't hit Poland, which is good, but the reusable first stage wasn't so lucky.

As we've mentioned previously, SpaceX designs the first stage of the rocket to be reused, and this is why it performs the technological feat of landing the booster (at sea or near the launch site). However, the difficulty of that achievement sometimes results in a fireball.

In the case of the landing on March 3, the first stage successfully touched down on a droneship stationed approximately 250 nautical miles off the Florida coast. However, an "off-nominal fire" at the rocket's base damaged one of the booster's legs, causing the vehicle to tip over with explosive consequences.

SpaceX put on a brave face about the situation, although the booster, at five flights, was a relative spring chicken compared to others in the company's fleet. The rocket biz said: "While disappointing to lose a rocket after a successful mission, the team will use the data to make Falcon even more reliable on ascent and landing."

The pace of Falcon 9 launches has increased in recent years, but this is the second time SpaceX has lost a first stage within a year. The company has also suffered several problems with its second stage, one of which resulted in a rare loss of mission when a batch of Starlink satellites was left in too low an orbit after a stage malfunction.

Still, while observers might wonder if SpaceX's frantic pace of operations is leading to cracks in quality control, at least there was flight test 8 of Starship to look forward to, right?

It was not to be. Listeners to the commentary could hear things go wrong right from the start, when, during the countdown, a staffer could be heard commanding "hold, hold, hold" – a clear indication that all was not well. SpaceX elected to scrub the launch 40 seconds before lift-off. Problems with the Starship upper stage followed issues with the Super Heavy booster. Finally, during a hold at the T-40 second mark, SpaceX controllers threw in the towel.

SpaceX boss Elon Musk said: "Too many question marks about this flight and then we were 20 bar low on ground spin-start pressure. Best to destack, inspect both stages and try again in a day or two."

SpaceX has not given a new date for the launch. March 4 was a possibility, but March 5 or 6 seem more likely now. ®