SpaceX Starlink satellites sacrificed to Earth's atmosphere after Falcon 9 explosion

SpaceX encountered a problem with one of its Falcon 9 rockets last week when the workhorse launch vehicle didn't reach its intended orbit.

It shouldn't be understated the rarity of a problem with Falcon 9, as the workhorse rocket has launched twenty-four times in just 2024 and more than 350 times since its debut in 2010. During that time it has only experienced one catastrophic in-flight failure, and its lack of failures is what earned its reliability badge.

However, during a launch last week, SpaceX discovered the Falcon 9 was leaking liquid oxygen, which resulted in it being unable to reach the designated orbit for the Starlink satellites and ultimately a RUD protocol being initiated by SpaceX - Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD), or boom. SpaceX managed to get into contact with some of the Starlink satellites and tried to raise their orbits using the satellite's ion thrusters. Unfortunately, that didn't work, as there was too much atmospheric drag.

2

So, what happens now? The Starlink satellites will eventually fall back into the denser regions of Earth's atmosphere, eventually burning up from a combination of their high speeds and friction. SpaceX wrote in a July 12 update that none of the satellites pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or the public's safety.

"We knew this incredible run had to come to an end at some point," SpaceX's former vice president of propulsion Tom Mueller, "but 344 flights in a row is amazing. The team will fix the problem and start the cycle again."