SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Grounded As Two Key Human Spaceflight Missions Loom

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SpaceX's prolific Falcon 9 rocket has been grounded for the second time in two months after federal regulators said they wanted to review a wayward landing attempt that occurred Wednesday morning.

That makes the Falcon 9 rocket unable to fly with two key human spaceflight missions on the horizon.

The company is slated to launch a daring mission called Polaris Dawn as soon as this week, and next month it's expected to launch two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on Crew-9, a mission that — after a months-long rotation — will also bring home Boeing Starliner's test flight crew. NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been in limbo on the orbiting laboratory since their Starliner flight in early June.

Wednesday's incident involved the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket — or the bottommost portion that gives the first burst of power at liftoff — which failed to land upright on a seafaring platform and exploded. The overall mission, however, appeared to go off without a hitch, safely delivering a batch of SpaceX's Starlink internet satellites into orbit.

Still, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said it would investigate the mishap.

Related article SpaceX delays launch of daring Polaris Dawn excursion into Earth's radiation belts

"The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starlink Group 8-6 mission that launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on August 28," the FAA said Wednesday in a statement. "The incident involved the failure of the Falcon 9 booster rocket while landing on a droneship at sea. No public injuries or public property damage have been reported. The FAA is requiring an investigation."