SpaceX Reveals Cause Of Falcon 9 Booster Explosion After Landing
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket booster failed to land perfectly on March 2, 2025. At that time, the trigger had not been revealed, but now SpaceX has an answer to the burning booster.
On March 7, 2025, when SpaceX attended a briefing on NASA's upcoming launch agenda, the company shared details about the Falcon 9 rocket incident after delivering Starlink. According to him, the booster suffered a fuel leak.
Julianna Scheiman, Director of NASA's Science Mission at SpaceX, said that the fire broke out about 48 seconds after the booster was seen landing normally. This fire made the booster explode and destroyed without causing any casualties.
The fire eventually resulted in damage to the structural integrity of the landing foot in the booster and rolled over, Scheiman said, quoted from Spacenews report.
Bill Gerstenmaier, Vice President of SpaceX Aviation Development and Reliability, provided further details. He said fuel leaks had occurred since 85 seconds after the rocket took off with dozens of Starlinks.
This leak occurred in one of the driving machines. The fuel evaporated due to the hot engine so that the components became flammable. Fortunately, the fire did not occur at the launch because there was no oxygen.
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"However, on the way up, no oxygen interacts with fuel, so there are no problems at all during the climb," Gerstenmaier explained.
That way, the fire as the booster landed was triggered by oxygen entering the compartment. This oxygen interacts with fuel and the engine is hot. After that, the fire broke out and made the internal rocket explode.
"Jika kami mengalami masalah selama penjakit, ini menunjukkan bahwa kebakaran dan kerusakan dapat ditangani hanya dengan mematikan satu mesin, yang masih memungkinkan kami untuk menyelesaikan seluruh misi," ungkap Gerstenmaier.