Liquid Oxygen Leak Causes Satellite Misfire
SpaceX announced that 20 satellites, launched from a Falcon 9 rocket in California, will crash back to Earth due to a malfunction. The second stage of the rocket experienced a liquid oxygen leak, preventing the Merlin Vacuum engine from completing its second burn.
Official statement from SpaceX
In a statement, SpaceX explained, “Falcon 9’s second stage performed its first burn nominally, however a liquid oxygen leak developed on the second stage. After a planned relight of the upper stage engine to raise perigee – or the lowest point of orbit – the Merlin Vacuum engine experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn.”
Attempts to contact and save satellites
SpaceX has been actively trying to contact and save the satellites. The company stated on X (formerly Twitter), “SpaceX has made contact with 5 of the satellites so far and is attempting to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters.”
In a subsequent update, SpaceX said, “The team made contact with 10 of the satellites and attempted to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters, but they are in an enormously high-drag environment with their perigee, or lowest point of their elliptical orbit, only 135 km above the Earth.”
Challenges and potential failure
SpaceX explained the challenges, noting, “Each pass through perigee removes 5+ km of altitude from the highest point in the satellite orbit. At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites.”
SpaceX assured that the re-entry of the satellites into Earth’s atmosphere “does not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety.”
Elon Musk’s reaction
Elon Musk responded to the updates, saying, “We’re updating satellite software to run the ion thrusters at their equivalent of warp 9. Unlike a Star Trek episode, this will probably not work, but it’s worth a shot. The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up.”