Falcon 9 - Ungrounded?

On July 11th, at 10:35 p.m. local time, a routine Falcon 9 mission carrying 7 V2 mini satellites and 13 direct-to-cell satellites experienced a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD) on its second stage. Despite this, the first-stage booster successfully landed on the droneship.

During the live stream of the mission, a suspected LOX leak was observed on the second stage of the Falcon 9, with visible ice forming around the MVac engine. According to an official statement from SpaceX, the second stage experienced a RUD when it attempted to relight later.

Read our article on the RUD here: Falcon 9 launch ends in RUD

It has now been confirmed that SpaceX submitted a public safety determination request to the FAA on July 15th. If this is approved, it will allow SpaceX to carry on launching their Falcon 9 rocket.

One of SpaceX's advantages is that they can launch their own payloads. Unlike most launch companies that rely on carrying customer payloads to orbit, SpaceX can proceed with Starlink launches even when there is a risk of failure, as any potential loss affects only their payloads. This is the presumed course of action. It is not specifically stated that SpaceX will solely launch Starlink satellites until the investigation is over, but it is highly likely this is the case since they wouldn't want to risk human lives or customer payloads.

If approved, SpaceX will continue investigating the RUD incident from July 11th while flying presumed Starlink missions