SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster dramatically EXPLODES after landing on a drone ship – marking the first landing failure since 2021

After four years without an incident, SpaceX engineers had good reason to be confident about a routine launch this week. 

But that confidence was literally blown out of the water this morning after a Falcon 9 rocket booster dramatically exploded shortly after landing.

Booster 1062 had just broken the record for the most consecutive launches without failure when it failed to touch down a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

A shocking video captured the moment the booster suddenly tipped over and was engulfed in a ball of purple flames.

This marks the first time since 2021 that a SpaceX booster stage has failed to land after taking its payload into orbit.

The rocket was carrying a payload of 21 satellites for the Starlink network which were sent on their way to orbit before the rocket was destroyed. Pictured: Starlink satellite dishes 

In a statement on X, SpaceX wrote that the Falcon 9 booster ‘tipped over’ following its landing on a droneship 

The Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 3:48 am EDT (08:48 BST).

In its payload, the rocket carried 21 Starlink satellites including 13 featuring the new Direct to Cell capabilities.

The rocket successfully launched and separated, sending the satellites on their way to orbit.

However, as booster 1062 approached the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ it appeared to suffer a catastrophic failure ending a streak of 267 successful landings for the company.

SpaceX livestream captured the moment the booster stage landed on the droneship before almost immediately toppling over, engulfed in flames.

About eight and a half minutes after launch the booster stage touched down on the droneship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’. However, the rocket then appeared to topple over and explode  

The Falcon 9 booster stage is designed to separate from the payload and then flip over in midair so that it can use its remaining fuel to lower itself back down to Earth. By landing safely, the boosters can be reused, massively reducing the costs of spaceflight 

In a post on X, SpaceX confirmed the booster’s destruction, writing: ‘After a successful ascent, Falcon 9’s first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship.

‘Teams are assessing the booster’s flight data and status. This was the booster’s 23rd launch.’

In response, SpaceX suspended the launch of a second Starlink mission scheduled to take off from California later that night.

In a statement on X, the company wrote: ‘Standing down from our second launch of the night to give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch.’

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster stages are designed to flip themselves around in mid-air so that they can use their remaining fuel to slow their descent back to Earth.

The rocket launched from pace Launch Complex 40 at Canaveral Space Force Station (pictured) in Florida at 3:48 am EDT. This marked the 23rd time the booster stage had been used 

Using fins for aerodynamic guidance, the booster navigates back towards an autonomous droneship where it is supposed to safely land.

This allows the booster stages to be reused multiple times, bringing down the overall cost of launch significantly.

However, this process is extremely technically challenging and the booster stages frequently exploded during their initial development.

There have been numerous cases in which Falcon 9 boosters detonated dramatically after either hitting the droneship too fast or toppling over upon landing.

Before today, the last time a rocket failed to land was in February 2021 when booster B1059 met a fiery end on the droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’.

SpaceX has yet to provide a comment on what caused today’s landing to go wrong.

SpaceX says it will stand down a second planned Starlink launch to give the crew time to review the data

SpaceX has not commented on whether this will affect the launch schedule of the Polaris Dawn mission scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 rocket later this week

Yet even after these failures, the reusable rocket still has an exceptionally high success rate and SpaceX is unlikely to pull the Falcon 9 from regular use.

Since 2018 when the latest Falcon 9 variant was introduced, Block 5, the rocket has become a workhorse for the private and public space sector.

Prior to its destruction today, booster 1062 had even been used for the Inspiration4 mission which carried the first all-civilian crew to orbit

A member of that original Inspiration4 crew, the billionaire Jared Isaacman will be stepping back onboard a Falcon 9 rocket later this week as part of the Polaris Dawn mission.

This daring project aims to launch the first-ever spacewalk conducted by non-professional astronauts.

However, the launch was delayed this morning due to bad weather over the intended splashdown site off the coast of Florida.

It is not yet clear whether this failure will have any impact on the Polaris Dawn launch schedule.