Flight Ban Officially Revoked, Falcon 9 Can Be Reused

Falcon 9 saat meluncurkan misi Crew-9/DOK NASA

JAKARTA Falcon 9, SpaceX's rocket, finally got permission to fly back. This flight permit was issued by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) on Friday, October 11.

The FAA revealed the temporary flight ban for Falcon 9 had been lifted. They have received investigative reports from SpaceX regarding the top stage of the problematic rocket during the last de-orbit process on 28 September.

"Waana Falcon 9 diizinkan untuk kembali beroperasi secara normal," kata FAA, dikutip dari Spacenews.

FAA melihat dan menerima temuan investigasi yang dipimpin SpaceX dan tindakan korektif atas kecelakaan yang terjadi pada misi Crew-9.

Neither the FAA nor SpaceX have explained what the findings in the investigation are. However, SpaceX had said that the upper stage experienced de-orbit burning that was not in accordance with standards.

As a result, the Falcon 9 booster managed to re-enter Earth, but did not land in the South Pacific Ocean to the east of New Zealand. This booster landed outside the designated zone.

Before this flight permit was revoked, Falcon 9 was allowed to fly once on October 6. The rocket can carry out the asteroid Hera mission initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA).

The permit was granted because the upper stage did not carry out a de-orbit process. SpaceX pushed Hera on a detached track from Earth so the FAA had no need to worry about anomalies that might occur again during de-orbit burning.