Spacex Grounds Falcon 9 Missions, Could Impact ISS Launch

Washington: NASA said Tuesday its next crew rotation to the International Space Station could be delayed after SpaceX announced it was grounding flights of its Falcon 9 rocket to investigate an unspecified issue.

SpaceX, the private space company owned by Elon Musk, has paused flights of its Falcon 9 rocket following an issue its second stage experienced during a routine launch Monday of Starlink satellites into orbit.

The grounding could potentially delay the next NASA crew rotation to the International Space Station, which currently is slated for February 11, given that those astronauts launch with a Falcon 9 rocket.

The rocket's stage "experienced an off-nominal condition during preparation for the deorbit burn," SpaceX said in a statement, without providing specifics.

"Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight."

The satellites were successfully deployed.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating Monday's mishap, Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, told a media briefing, saying preparation for the Crew-12 mission to ISS was contingent on the outcome.

The ISS mission is to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

The crew includes Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, along with French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Andrey Fedyaev of Russia.

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