SpaceX Falcon 9 grounded after fiery first stage booster landing

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Just about 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the successful launch of 21 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage booster used for the mission appeared to burst into flames and tip over after touching down on the drone ship, A Shortfall of Gravitas.

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The FAA confirmed to Eyewitness News, it’s requiring an investigation.

The agency added, “A return to flight of the Falcon 9 booster rocket is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety.”

Read: FAA grounds SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after booster explosion

Dr. Ken Kremer with Space UpClose told us,” So, it needs to be investigated. You’ve got to have pinpoint landings so that when they bring them back here on land, which is what was going to happen with Polaris Dawn, that it doesn’t go off course and cause a catastrophe, impacting people or businesses here on the Space Coast.”

In addition to the upcoming Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission, SpaceX has plans to launch NASA’s Crew-9 mission in September, and NASA’s Europa Clipper mission in October to study Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Read: FAA grounds Falcon 9 after SpaceX booster lands on droneship, falls

The Falcon 9 was briefly grounded back in July after an issue with a Falcon 9 second stage.

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