Replay: Falcon 9 booster explodes on landing after launching 21 Starlink satellites

Watch a replay of our live coverage as SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 21 satellites for Elon Musk's Starlink internet service. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station occurred at 3:48 a.m. EDT (0748 UTC) on Wednesday, August 28. The first-stage booster making its 23rd flight exploded after crash landing on SpaceX's drone ship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas', stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
The mission, designated Starlink 8-6, took a north-easterly trajectory on departure from the space coast. The 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites, include 13 with direct to cellphone capabilities.
Commentary was provided by Spaceflight Now's Will Robinson Smith.
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[@ch1llspace]

I watched her first flight and now her last. Thank you for your service, B1062.

[@lightdreamer_]

Crossing my fingers that she can be repaired

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

@@lightdreamer_ don't think they'll be anything left to repair

[@Locuste]

after 23 times flight he want to retired he find a way to do

[@ameli0168]

She got a little tired. I wonder what fatigued or if it was human error

[@charlescole-p9v]

Bummer about the landing, but SpaceXs history has been outstanding.

[@clevergirl4457]

This was a record breaking re-flight for a falcon 9, B1062 heading up for the 23rd time, sad to see the success streak of 268 landings come to a flamy end. But wow, 268, successful landings in a row? there are rockets with launch streaks lower than that. Also B1062 was Inspiration 4's booster, I wonder if Jared Isaacman watch this launch live , given Polaris Dawn's delay.

[@cynvision]

Waiting on the Hopper cartoon for this one. It'll be a good one.

[@clevergirl4457]

@@DebiSunset actually there have been around a dozen but those happened years ago around the time Falcon was first doing reuse

[@leechjim8023]

It appears to have landed and was shutting down normally. It appears a leg broke and punctured the fuel tank, hence the bad fire and it fell over.

[@capicolaspicy]

@@leechjim8023 I thought the exact same thing, when the landing legs came down something about that one on the right closest just looked weird, and then as soon as the booster settled that one appeared to fold back up or break and over it went.

[@lwing77]

Very cool my first watch

[@bminerrolltide]

Likely a leak of hydraulic fluid that led to the leg collapsing. Fits with the strange color of the flame and dark smoke.

[@deniseelles4545]

Thank you for coverage SFN./Will . Disturbing end to this launch but most importantly no one was hurt. Hope Falcon 9's can fly again very soon.

[@ColorNerdChris]

From SpaceX: Standing down from our second @Starlink 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

[@antman6495]

This is possible in manned space flight, cargo too. We must realize that for the next 30 years, spaceflight will continue to be very dangerous, the odds are better, but consequences are severe. Alot of hard, long hours logged in by thousands of SpaceX assembly craftsmen & women, Hats off to all your WORK, you will solve this anomaly, SpaceX Generation 🚀🇺🇸👷🌍🙏💲💫

[@stgeorgeist]

booster did not explode as such? it seems leg or legs failed and it tipped over

[@ianalleyne794]

Thank you 1062, you will be missed

[@areareare9953]

"Oh dear".

[@mysticimagesart5827]

Thanks for o great coverage. It's almost like the final entry burn didn't shut down and the thrust from the still burning flame pushed the rocket over.

[@antman6495]

Hey come on, SpaceX, cutting FEED is a old NASA trick 🤔SHOW IMPACT EXPLOSION 🚀🔥

[@michaelbrown8619]

NASA Has always been in the open. That statement is false.

[@stevedrake1965]

Did a leg fail either break or failed to deploy?

[@SoundJudgment]

"Damn, Billy! I told you yesterday, you forgot to turn that last screw on the leg assembly, to... to....... .....uh oh....."

[@popsss2000]

The problem was around the grid fence. On the entry burn

[@rtb1724]

Looks like one engine didn't shut off and pushed it over.

[@crapton9002]

It looked like the booster was correcting a slight overshoot and got just outside its point of balance.

[@JTube571]

I think a leg didn't fully lock into place.

[@crapton9002]

@@JTube571 Could be. I noticed it was trying to hit the outside of the circle and adjusted at the last second. That fire was sus also.

[@JTube571]

@@crapton9002 Could have been a hydraulic leak.

[@JamesKiraly-oz1nc]

Looks like a leg deploy failure on the right leg.

[@GregoryJByrne]

Almost looked like it broke through the rocket housing which started the cascade fire. "A house/planet divided by tribal Gods will never stand." Jesus When you see the trees turning green due to rising CO2 levels from Earth's increasing AXIAL TILT magnetic north you know you are at the door. Knock & Jesus will let you in. Jesus is the Way Truth & Life as Christ is not divided.

[@thompjackson]

1:08:40

[@RelativisticSpace]

until 1:09:05 @T+08.29

[@The_HillPeople]

Looks like the far leg collapsed.

[@douglasclosson4134]

This edited video doesn't show how after the entry burn, the flames did not turn off cleanly, suggesting there was already a problem long before it got to the landing pad....

[@tonymurphy9112]

You can see the leg support strut fail, that's what happened. I played it over and over and eventually I stopped it at the right moment to see it fail

[@igorschmidlapp6987]

The technical term is OOPS... I wonder if weather/seas were a factor, given the Crew Dragon scrub...

[@hiruharii]

rare to see a rocket failure like this

[@km3470]

BOOSTER

[@dahlia695]

I hope SpaceX doesn't become sloppy and rest on it's laurels too much otherwise it may follow the same path as Boeing.

[@pichardo2227]

Wow 23

[@capicolaspicy]

Wow, right as the booster landed you can see the right landing leg closest appear to lock down a bit erratically, and then al most immediately appears to fold back up as the booster goes over, and still unusual amount of flame coming out the engine still. 3 landings beyond the 20th....intrigued to hear what was the actual cause!

[@ATLBraves1992]

Fatigue--> hydraulic leak --> failure

[@jamesraymond1158]

"Oh dear" a perfect reaction to the tip over. Sensors should have shown exactly what went wrong within a few minutes of the landing.

[@fabrice9893]

L'absence de soutitrage est regrettable dommage

[@JudicialMermaid]

I bet that Billionaire that was supposed to go up for some casual sightseeing, but got delayed due to weather is grateful now after the fact 😂

[@lorichambliss6503]

I'm just fascinated! And so amazed

[@guydemullet303]

Honey, I’m home…oooof!!!! DANG IT!!! How many times have I told you kids not leave your Leggos in the middle of room!!!

[@RWalton-hj8vr]

They should punch out coin-size tokens out of the booster and raffle them off for a charity or something. It would be neat to have a piece of metal that had been to space

[@Protopaq]

Was it going too fast for the back leg? I don't know the threshold for the touchdown forces, esp after 20+ landings

[@WEEZERBREEZE]

Hello from PA, do you have the estimated time for Polaris launch Friday morning?

[@joshuaguenin9507]

it is not confirmed for friday, but the time would be the same

[@uuzd4s]

That was Not a centered Booster landing as stated here. Hard to tell if the Landing was off center so far the Booster overcorrected (maybe due to an engine problem), or just a Hard Landing or a Landing Leg fail. 😬

[@RichardGozinya1369]

They got their money out of the booster quite a few times. I'd call it fair wear and tear.

[@Scott-b5g]

i guess the astronauts aren't getting a ride home.

[@lisap9936]

I'm watching play back from Spain at 14:00 p.m. CET

[@clqudy4750]

Space is hard. NBD. It looks like leftover propellent continued to flow after shutdown, and the resulting fire cooked a landing leg. That failed and it fell over. Maybe kinda hard landing is suspect?

[@dr.hinneredv932]

You can fast forward to 1h09

[@IngridSaybe]

Thank you for the information. Loud and clear.

[@peterminea3949]

So difficult to get to space! It is easier to get to France. And Pavel Durov is famous for it.

[@IngridSaybe]

Night night. Thanks so much.

[@paulkeenanmusic]

Seems like they need to employ a catch claw on the drone ship

[@scotttafil7584]

Why didnt someone grab the landing leg could have saved it damit

[@poetgallery]

...noticed the SpaceX logo on the landing point(center) on the drone ship had cleared off.

[@kevinkatzke9845]

Why was it a night mission usually it happens in the morning just curious

[@UncleArthur44]

7.10pm we’d 28 Aug here Ballarat, Australia

[@glenkeating7333]

It's 8:25 a.m here in eastern Canada!

[@jjharveyMI]

Say hello to Harambe for us, B1062

[@michaelbrown8619]

So much for that transparency Musk is so intent on. They cut away thinking we are so stupid we wouldn’t know what happened.

[@Itsallfun3000]

I did not expect to see this and on the day of polaris

[@lasher367th]

Look like a leg collapsed.

[@davidwolf226]

Dang... I hate it when this happens!

[@stevewinfield9970]

Oh dear

[@NAV-tv7xf]

Get the facts straight at least. It stuck the landing but exploded when it fell over several seconds after landing. Big difference from that you are spinning!

[@MsKtgrace]

What landing were you watching?

[@popsss2000]

I noticed a problem on the entry burn.

[@Wdaywalker]

AHHH I've been trying to keep up on the launches and the one I miss the interesting stuff happens... figures

[@mscaptjo]

Would have been 342nd landing ........,

[@mscaptjo]

Ahoy from ft Lauderdale again

[@trishabrady1769]

Woke up to the bad news. 😢

[@kurtfrancis4621]

Looked like a leg gave way on landing. RIP

[@mscaptjo]

Oops.. not live

[@frankyates5307]

Follow that dot in the sky! Sux.

[@CharlesBenninghoff]

It is impossible NOT to admire the X industry Musk has created. Example: Even though this failure was quite unusual and impossible to foretell, especially because this module has such a great history, but within minutes of the failure X is showing a blasted PR "hitpiece" (albeit sort of a reverse one...) about how rare such a failure is in X's glorious history, and this is complete with videos, colored statistical analyses... the works. WOW! On the other hand, maybe this is standard procedure nowadays but, even so, it was impressively done.

[@ruthlemler2726]

Musk always says even when things go wrong it’s always exciting. 😢😢😢😢

[@l.ls.8890]

You know the ole saying, win some lose some. I bettcha the goonies at Boeing are laughing their asses off at this small SX failure.

[@Peaceandhapppiness]

Not sure why these guys spending billions to see some rockets explode..😂😂

[@Dinlitla]

B1062 o7

[@dagwort]

As I watched this in replay, just before the booster landing a campaign ad from *Tampon Tim* cut in. I blew up with my loudest spontaneous bout of cussing in a long time. Thanks for the aggravation, KZbin.

[@michaelthomas3646]

I love how the presenter said failed landing of the Rocket Booster. It landed successfully, the only failure was the engine cut-off which is a mechanical, fuel, or software glitch, it is not a landing failure. otherwise the rocket booster would have exploded on touchdown, or not even touched down. but 2-3 seconds after touch down is not a landing failure.

[@mattyjdyoutub]

Guess they will not need to study the data since you figured it out.

[@cunver7157]

"How did the booster landing go today?" "It was successful, sir" "But I heard it went up in flames" "This KZbin comment confirms that it was in fact successful"

[@paulblaauw]

His name is Will.

[@michaelbrown8619]

A failure is a failure. Granted many successful missions but that’s rocket biz. Everyone was cheering on Musk and cutting down Boeing. Boeing has had way more success than Musk will ever have.

[@chrislambert5249]

Another RUD from SpaceX...Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.

[@Darvada]

Did the booster rocket fall into the ocean? Shame they cut the feed so no one would see the landing failure , kinda like Nasa when a UFO or UAP comes into view

[@mderline4412]

*For Pete's sake SpaceX! What useful purpose was served, by cutting away from the live feed!?...*

[@clevergirl4457]

The starlink streams have become automated, no ones sitting there switching cameras, you can go back and watch all the previous landings: they show it for a couple seconds and they switch back to stage 2's SECO.

[@qwerty112311]

What useful purpose would have been served by not cutting out? Everything that matters was streamed.

[@mderline4412]

@@clevergirl4457 Fair enough!

[@mderline4412]

@@qwerty112311 *Most, would prefer to see the entirety of "the anomoly"! Call us crazy and unreasonable....* I'm guessing, You're special....

[@richardfs7814]

I guess the FAA will ground the Falcon 9 for a couple of months now. But how are they going to ground Starliner if it's already in space? :)

[@rgarri6396]

The back leg was installed by a DEI employee.

[@TheTBohn]

Test

[@ercost60]

Elon blames the Dems

[@jocounelis]

I don't like it 😒 😕 😐 😑 😞 😪 😢 it failed.

[@afterburner119]

Man spacex is starting to be less and less transparent….. why did they cut away? Failure IS an option remember. Why we hiding all of a sudden?

[@gp8383]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@clevergirl4457]

the streams are automated. they cycle throught the same number of cams for the same amount of time. lack of transparency would mean they cut the view immediately, or they didn't address the failure just minutes after it happens.

[@afterburner119]

@@clevergirl4457 quite a coincidence thats all 😀. They are still way ahead in that regards, But if we all take off our I💚spacex shirts, my comment does hold some legitimacy. Maybe it is opsec or something like that, but as a lifelong avgeek, i am definitely noticing some changes when it comes to SpX failures.

[@Magnum-uj7hk]

@@afterburner119 SpaceX always cuts the live feed a few seconds after landing for Starlink missions

[@afterburner119]

Another example is the upper stage failure. I want to think there was a view of the RUD, and yes, i know the investigation is still ongoing etc. BUT….. five years ago, we would of watched it live.

[@bsaal2310]

I’m guessin a hydraulic leak when legs deployed, mist catching fire and not locking into place.

[@wally7856]

Legs don't use hydraulics, the deploy using gravity.

[@b2yes]

How can you help starliner？

[@devdon4274]

I love your channel ❤and I do subscribe and support

[@dcolb121]

Accidents happen.