Whiting commented on the failure of the Merlin Vacuum engines of the second stage of the rocket, which occurred at 05:35 Moscow time on July 12. The engines failed to fire a second time, which was necessary to launch 20 Starlink satellites into orbit. Therefore, the rocket did not carry enough payload: Elon Musk later reported that he managed to communicate with only 5 of the 20 satellites.
The American general expressed confidence that SpaceX will soon be able to repair the Falcon 9 and continue the broken chain of 335 launches without accidents.
“So I have every confidence, personally, that SpaceX will work with the FAA, work with NASA, work with the Space Force to figure out what happened and continue to launch,” Whiting said.
Source: Ferra
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