Fresh off of the delay of the Polaris Dawn’s 3:38 AM launch Wednesday morning, thanks to unfavorable weather in the abort zones, SpaceX made the decision to continue with the launch of Starlink mission 8-6, slated for launch at 3:48 AM. While the launch and deployment of the Starlink satellite payload went off without a hitch, it would not prove to be a great morning for SpaceX.

Booster Lost Due To Failed Landing

Despite the overall success of the primary mission, the record-breaking flight of Booster B1062 was marred when it failed to land safely on the droneship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” in the Atlantic Ocean.

Liftoff was at 03:48 AM EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. While the primary mission objective—to deploy the Starlink satellites—was accomplished, the attempt to recover the booster did not go as planned. As the booster descended towards the droneship, a green flash was visible near the Merlin engines, followed by the booster toppling over and catching fire.

SpaceX confirmed the incident in an update posted on X.com shortly afterward.

Landing Streak Comes To A Disappointing End

The loss of the storied booster disappointed both SpaceX and the company’s growing ranks of followers. The reusability of the Falcon 9 first-stage boosters is a cornerstone of the company’s business model. Wednesday’s failure ends a streak of 267 consecutive successful booster landings. The last time SpaceX experienced a similar failure was on February 16, 2021, during the Starlink 19 v1.0 mission. On that occasion, the booster B1059 failed to land on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You.”

Following the incident, SpaceX decided to stand down from what would have been the day’s third launch attempt, another Starlink mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California to evaluate the data from B1059. A new launch date for that mission has not yet been announced.

Launch Replay

Next Launch

With the failed landing of B1062, SpaceX has already delayed one launch from Vandenberg AFB in California while it evaluates what led to the failure and what remediations would be necessary. That makes the timeline of launches from Florida tenuous as well. While there has been no official announcement of launch dates for Polaris and the Starlink mission being set, it may take SpaceX several days to complete their analyses before their next launch.

That being said, Polaris Dawn is currently on the launch pad, awaiting weather improvements. That could come as early as Friday morning but do pay close attention to official announcements from SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn program regarding their next launch attempt.

• Date: NET August 30, 2024
• Organization: SpaceX
• Mission: Polaris Dawn
• Rocket: Falcon 9
• Launch Site: LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center
• Launch Window: 03:38 AM – 07:09 AM EDT
• Payload: Crew Dragon with four astronauts

_{Note: This article was written by Mark Stone of Florida Media Now and was originally published at that website.}