SpaceX has confirmed that a Falcon 9 upper stage reentered Earth's atmosphere over Europe earlier this week due to a liquid oxygen leak that prevented a controlled deorbit burn. The incident, which took place on February 19, resulted in minor damage in Poland, where debris, including composite overwrapped pressure vessels, landed near the city of Poznań.
Part of falcon 9 first stage that entered above Poland.
The upper stage was launched on February 1 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Starlink Group 11-4 mission, carrying 22 Starlink satellites. Following the payload deployment, the stage was expected to conduct a deorbit burn to ensure a controlled reentry over the ocean. However, U.S. Space Force tracking data showed that the burn did not occur, leaving the stage in orbit until atmospheric drag caused its reentry.
SpaceX later confirmed in a statement on its website that a liquid oxygen leak developed during the coast phase of the mission, leading to higher-than-expected vehicle body rates. As a result, the company passivated the upper stage by venting remaining propellant and discharging batteries to minimize risks of fragmentation.
This marks the third issue with a Falcon 9 upper stage in just over six months. In July 2024, another liquid oxygen leak prevented a Falcon 9 upper stage from performing a circularization burn, leading to the rapid reentry of its Starlink payload due to high atmospheric drag. A second anomaly occurred in September during the Crew-9 mission to the International Space Station, when an off-nominal deorbit burn caused the upper stage to reenter outside the designated zone in the South Pacific Ocean.
Following those incidents, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily paused Falcon 9 launches, granting approval to resume flights only after investigations and mitigations were implemented. The July incident was the only one that resulted in mission failure, while both Crew-9 and the February 1 Starlink satellites successfully deployed before their respective upper stage anomalies.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has taken note of these issues, with panel member and former astronaut Kent Rominger emphasizing the importance of maintaining rigorous safety measures as hardware ages and launch cadence increases. Despite this latest anomaly, SpaceX has not halted Falcon 9 launches, stating that teams are actively investigating the root cause and have already implemented mitigations for future missions.
The company has not provided specific details about these corrective measures but continues to work on ensuring the reliability and safety of its launch vehicles as it maintains a rapid launch pace.
Add comment
Comments