Do they use the same design of second stage for the Crew Dragon too?

Yes. But they’ve launched over 360 and this is the first failure, so it looks like a manufacturing, not design, fault.

There is a rumour going round they suspected a problem and deliberately used it in a Starlink launch, rather than scrap it, as worth the risk.

Don't believe it, unless they didn’t think the FAA would ground them with their record to date.

Regardless, I don’t think it will be for long.

A Falcon 9 Stage 2 was just tested at McGregor. This is the first one since the Starlink 9-3 anomaly and could be a good sign of SpaceX's progress with the investigation.

​​​​​​​http://nsf.live/mcgregor

SpaceX is aiming to restart Starlink satellite launches as soon as tomorrow after addressing the cause behind the faulty Falcon 9 flight on July 11.

In a new report, SpaceX confirms that a liquid oxygen leak led to the malfunction that failed to place 20 Starlink satellites into orbit. "During the first burn of Falcon 9’s second stage engine, a liquid oxygen leak developed within the insulation around the upper stage engine,” it says. SpaceX then traced the leak to a crack in a “sense line for a pressure sensor attached to the vehicle’s oxygen system.”

These sense lines are used to accurately measure and regulate an electronic component’s voltage. However, fatigue caused a sense line on the pressure sensor to crack due to “high loading from engine vibration and looseness in the clamp that normally constrains the line,” SpaceX says.

Despite the leak, the Falcon 9’s second stage was able to operate during its first engine burn. But during the second engine burn, the liquid oxygen leak caused excessive cooling of the engine components, including the ignition fluid to the engine “As a result, the engine experienced a hard start rather than a controlled burn, which damaged the engine hardware and caused the upper stage to subsequently lose attitude control,” SpaceX says.

“For near term Falcon launches, the failed sense line and sensor on the second stage engine will be removed. The sensor is not used by the flight safety system and can be covered by alternate sensors already present on the engine,” SpaceX says. "An additional qualification review, inspection, and scrub of all sense lines and clamps on the active booster fleet led to a proactive replacement in select locations."

SpaceX has also tested the design changes at a rocket development facility in Texas with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the malfunction.

SpaceX has since submitted its official “mishap” report to the FAA to help close the investigation. Although the probe remains open, the FAA granted SpaceX clearance to essentially resume the Falcon 9 launches because the malfunction doesn’t pose a threat to public safety.

“This public safety determination means the Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met,” the government agency said in a statement.

Back up and running….

This is Falcon!

Our 300th reflight of a booster delivers 23 @Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....1cde165772.png
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Double Dragons readying for flight ahead of the Polaris Dawn and Crew-9 human spaceflight missions.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....151852fef0.png

https://www.space.com/spacex-polaris...ay-helium-leak

SpaceX delays Polaris Dawn astronaut launch to Aug. 28 due to helium leak

Polaris Dawn, which will conduct the first-ever private spacewalk, had been scheduled to launch early Tuesday morning (Aug. 27) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But a helium leak has forced a delay of at least 24 hours.

"Teams are taking a closer look at a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect umbilical. Falcon and Dragon remain healthy and the crew continues to be ready for their multi-day mission to low Earth orbit. Next launch opportunity is no earlier than Wednesday, August 28," SpaceX announced in an X post on Monday evening (Aug. 26).

The launch, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, is now targeted for 3:38 a.m. EDT (0738 GMT) on Wednesday, though there are two backup opportunities on that day as well — 5:23 a.m. EDT (0923 GMT) and 7:09 a.m. EDT (1109 GMT). You can watch the action via a SpaceX webcast, which will begin at around midnight EDT (0400 GMT).....

This ends a run of 267 consecutive successful landings.

VideoThat is the end for #SpaceX's booster 1062 after the record 23rd flight. You can see the back right leg support gave way for some reason. It didn't seem like a rough landing.

How is A Shortfall of Gravitas I wonder?

How amazing it is that such an event is so rare.


@SpaceX
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Standing down from our second launch of the night to give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch. A new target launch date will be shared once available

Looks like one of the engines wasn't operating nominally, there's a lot of fire after touchdown, hard landing perhaps?
Hell of a record though. 23 flights for one booster.

Hell, yeah - context important here. Media going all "Ooh" and "Ahh" when until recently throwing the damn things away was the norm :hmm:

FAA:

"The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during the Starlink Group 8-6 mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met.

SpaceX made the return to flight request on Aug. 29 and the FAA gave approval on Aug. 30."

Good to see they lifted the grounding. The whole grounding - for a failure of the booster to land safely when everyone else just throws them away and don't even try that and with no apparent launch safety implications - smacked of bureaucratic overreach.

BREAKING: @NASA's Steve Stich announces New Dragon Contingency:
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New for Crew-8 and Crew-9, in the event of all 4 parachutes failing to deploy, SpaceX can use the SuperDracos launch abort system to perform a soft-splashdown.

Next step, powered descent and landing.

From coupe, to cabriolet, to minivan…At this afternoon's Crew-9 briefing, NASA releases photos of the reconfigured Crew-8 interior with the two extra seats to accommodate Wilmore and Williams in the event of an emergency return.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b1c718e1ce.png

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....17d3d8e0a3.png
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👀👀👀

Wow. California has rejected the air force’s plan to give spacex permission to launch 50 times a year

… because of @elonmusk’s tweets

Disagreeing on politics is one thing, but it’s no reason to tear down SpaceX or Tesla.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5561d066cd.png

Here are some reasons why permitting more rocket launches should have nothing to do with Elon's X posts or political positions, though I acknowledge the LA Times article raised some other environmental concerns. Also, ill throttle back the lengthy posts and start working on some TLDRs in future.

1. Most payloads launched from Vandenberg support the Department of Defense, like Starshield, protecting our national security and warfighters in the field. We are in a space race for the ultimate high ground.
2. Starlink launches from Vandenberg help connect people who are otherwise disconnected—whether through access to information, telemedicine or during natural disasters. It is a service that improves lives and in real cases --saves lives.
3. Space is the last great frontier. We know so little about it, yet we could discover new sources of power, new materials, new life or even new homes. It is a quest for answers to the big questions we’ve all pondered. This mission requires a generation of intelligent dreamers and every rocket launch inspires a few more to contribute to the grand endeavor.
4. And if all these big-picture reasons aren’t enough, consider this.. SpaceX employs a lot of highly educated people to build, launch and recover those rockets. If California does not want them - I imagine other states will.

NEWS: @SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission in federal court yesterday, accusing panel members of political bias.

SpaceX is seeking an order that would bar the agency from regulating the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket launch program at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara.

The lawsuit claims the commission, which oversees the use of land and water within the state’s more than 1,000 miles of coastline, unfairly asserted regulatory powers over the company’s launches based on a disapproval of Musk’s political views.
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One utters an extremely loud "Tut! Tut!" to the Biden Administration. Brain-dead cretin vs. American Genius/hero.

- Ed

It's apparently more important to virtue signal these days than it is to actually do big things. Except.... it's not.

And Elon chose to speak out for free speech, which the party that has the greatest desire to control speech, also currently has the most power in hand to try and do so. It's ugly. They're scrambling.

Good God, what sort of morons are in charge of the California Coastal Commision? I mean, they pretty much stated that the reason for the denial was Musk's politics!!! That's grounds for a massive civil rights lawsuit (with damages, which could be in the $Billions).
I mean, most people know that this sort of thing goes on in backrooms, but these idiots put it in a press release!!!
Some judge needs to slap down the California Coastal Commision - and HARD!