Crew-9 launch: SpaceX in fresh trouble? Falcon 9’s second stage ‘disposed’ outside targeted area

SpaceX announced on Sunday that after the successful launch of the Crew-9 mission, "Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn."

"As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area," SpaceX said in a post on X. Elon Musk's company said it "will resume launching after we better understand root cause".

The NASA-SpaceX Crew 9 mission launched aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft on Saturday. A few minutes after the launch, Dragon separated from "Falcon 9’s second stage" and began its solo journey to the International Space Station.

While the Falcon 9 rocket landed back on Earth, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov continued their journey in the Dragon spacecraft to the ISS.

Falcon 9 first and second stage: What happened exactly?

After the Crew 9 launch, Falcon 9 rocket first stage booster landed at the company’s Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Meanwhile, the second stage headed toward orbit.

Unlike the Falcon 9's first stage, which returned to Earth for a planned landing, the second stage is disposable. The second stage was planned to be discarded after delivering the Crew Dragon Freedom into orbit.

SpaceX Dragon spacecraft separated from the second stage 12 minutes after launch from Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

"At 1:29 EDT, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft separated from the Falcon 9 rocket second stage and now is flying on its own," NASA said.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 failures in past

In August this year, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9 after it failed to land back on Earth during a routine Starlink mission.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 successfully launched a batch of Starlink internet satellites into orbit from Florida in August. The rocket's reusable first-stage booster returned to Earth and attempted to land on a sea-faring barge as usual, but it toppled into the ocean after a fiery touchdown, Reuters reported.

The failure marked the second time this year the FAA grounded SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The rocket was previously grounded in July for the first time since 2016, following a second-stage failure in space that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites.

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond.