SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets crashed after the incident

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets, widely used by the company, have been grounded until further notice after a rare incident, US officials announced Wednesday, with two crew members soon to board the vehicle.

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The setback threatens to delay the takeoff of the Polaris Dawn mission, which aims to conduct the first private spacewalk in history. The launch was postponed twice in recent days due to a technical issue and then due to weather. A new date is now pending.

Early Wednesday morning, the Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Starlink satellites — the service that provides a satellite connection to the Internet — lifted off from Florida without incident.

After releasing its cargo, the rocket's first stage descends as usual to land on a barge in the ocean, a process that, SpaceX's greatest innovation, allows the company to reuse this part of the vehicle.

But video of the maneuver showed the first stage catching fire as it landed on the barge and then flipping onto its side. It's the “reverse”, billionaire Elon Musk confirmed in Company X, which says 23^e Theft of machine.

The American aviation regulator (FAA) has announced that it is calling for an “investigation” into the incident.

“Resumption of Falcon 9 rocket flight is subject to the FAA determining that any system, procedure or procedure related to the anomaly does not affect public safety,” the agency said.

According to Specialized Press, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket last failed to land three years ago, and since then the company has succeeded in the maneuver 260 times in a row.

In July, the rocket was grounded for two weeks after a different incident: a leak in the rocket's second stage. The FAA also conducted an investigation before allowing flights to resume.

In late September, a Falcon 9 rocket must lift off to transport two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission, called Crew-9, was supposed to ensure regular rotation of the ISS crew with one specificity: It was supposed to bring two other astronauts back to Earth in February, including the initial spacecraft designed by Boeing, which ultimately proved unsafe enough. return trip