The spaceship of SpaceX, Falcon 9 rocket has got the nod from US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to recommence space missions after a rare mid-flight failure that brought the rocket down.
On Friday, FAA reviewed and declared that there was nothing about public safety to worry with respect to the accident which occurred during the failed launching on July 11 thus permitting it for flight operations ahead of full investigations.
Through its X (formerly Twitter), SpaceX indicated it would be ready to re-launch the rocket as early as Saturday, July 27. Falcon 9 is currently believed to be one of the most frequently employed rockets used worldwide but it failed in space resulting into loss of its Starlink satellite payload. This was a first time in over seven years that such a heavily relied upon by global space industry rocket had failed.
SpaceX released a statement on Friday attributing the cause of the mishap to leaking liquid oxygen which resulted in an engine part getting too cold and subsequently damaged its hardware. “A crack in a sense line for a pressure sensor” was identified as where this problematic leak arose from. For future launches, in near term, SpaceX plans on removing both faulty sense line and sensor located at second stage engine.
Falcon 9 remains American lone rocket certified to fly NASA’s astronauts to International Space Station; while NASA is planning next astronaut mission in August when Crew Dragon spacecraft will launch atop Falcon 9.
