Elon Musk's SpaceX To Resume Launch Operations Two Weeks After Mishap Involving 20 Starlink Satellites

Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company SpaceX is gearing up to resume launch operations after a two-week-long pause.

What Happened: SpaceX launched Falcon 9 with 20 Starlink satellites from California on July 11. However, the Starlink satellites were deployed in a lower-than-intended orbit owing to an issue with the rocket's second-stage engine. The company’s launch operations have been on hold since.

The company subsequently conducted an investigation with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and has identified the most probable cause of the mishap, it said on Thursday. Necessary design changes have also been deployed to prevent a recurrence of the issue.

“Safety and reliability are at the core of SpaceX's operations. It would not have been possible to achieve our current cadence without this focus, and thanks to the pace we've been able to launch, we're able to gather unprecedented levels of flight data and are poised to rapidly return to flight, safely and with increased reliability,” SpaceX said.

The company is now looking to resume launch activities, starting as soon as Saturday, July 27.

As for the Starlink satellites that were deployed in a lower-than-intended orbit on the last launch, they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and were fully demised upon reentry, SpaceX said. No debris has been reported to date, it added.

Why It Matters: SpaceX completed 67 missions using its Falcon launch vehicles as of the end of the second quarter, with Falcon 9 alone accounting for 66 launches.  The company is looking to launch 144 times in 2024, averaging twelve times per month.

The two-week-long pause poses a major threat to SpaceX’s launch targets, with the company having launched only three missions in July thus far.

On its upcoming flight planned for July 27, the company is looking to launch 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from Florida.

Starlink is the satellite internet segment of Musk's SpaceX. It achieved a breakeven cash flow in November.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More:

• Elon Musk Agrees With Former Executive Who Thinks ‘Everyone’ Has ‘Strong’ Opinions On Tesla Unlike In The Case Of Eli Lilly And LVMH

Photo courtesy: SpaceX