Elon Musk’s SpaceX canceled the second of two scheduled satellite launches early Wednesday after one of its rocket boosters burst into flames and fell over after landing.
The Falcon 9’s first stage toppled as it touched down on a drone ship stationed hundreds of miles off the Florida coast, according to CBS News. Video of the incident showed flames around the bottom of the booster before it keeled over into the Atlantic Ocean, apparently exploding as it crashed onto its side.
“After a successful ascent, Falcon 9’s first stage booster tipped over following touchdown on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship,” SpaceX said in an X post. “Teams are assessing the booster’s flight data and status. This was the booster’s 23rd launch.”
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The rocket’s second stage continued into orbit where it successfully deployed 21 Starlink satellites, the company said. It later added that a scheduled second launch had been scrubbed “to give the team time to review booster landing data from the previous launch.”
The ill-fated engine—B1062—had set the company’s reuse record, according to CBS News.
The dramatic end to the booster’s life came after SpaceX scrubbed a separate crewed Falcon 9 launch scheduled for early Wednesday due to “unfavorable weather” forecasts in splashdown areas off the coast of Florida. The Polaris Dawn mission is aiming to make history with the first commercial spacewalk when the crew are eventually blasted into orbit.
