SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage engine suffers catastrophic in-flight failure during Starlink launch

SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage engine suffers catastrophic in-flight failure during Starlink launch

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites from California Thursday, but the engine powering the rocket’s second stage suffered a catastrophic failure, if not an explosion, during an attempt to carry out a final “burn” to raise the low point of the orbit, company founder Elon Musk posted early Friday on X.

Musk referred to the anomaly as a “RUD,” a tongue-in-cheek acronym that stands for “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

“Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown,” he said on X. “Team is reviewing data tonight to understand root cause. Starlink satellites were deployed, but the perigee (orbital low point) may be too low for them to raise orbit. Will know more in a few hours.”

SpaceX later said flight controllers had made contact with five of the 20 Starlinks launched Thursday “and is attempting to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters.”

SpaceX launches first batch of direct-to-cell satellites

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Source: cbsnews.com