A propellant leak was to blame for the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket crashing to Earth over Europe last week, SpaceX says.
The Falcon 9 launched on Feb. 1 from California, carrying 22 Starlink internet satellites to low Earth orbit as planned. SpaceX usually de-orbits Falcon 9 upper stages after their deployment work is done, bringing the hardware down in a controlled fashion over unpopulated areas.
That didn’t happen on this particular mission, however. The Falcon 9 upper stage stayed aloft until Feb. 19, when it fell to Earth uncontrolled, sparking a dramatic sky show seen across much of Europe and dropping debris on Poland.
SpaceX now knows what went wrong.
“During the coast phase of this Starlink mission, a small liquid oxygen leak developed, which ultimately drove higher-than-expected vehicle body rates. As a result, following safe mission conops [concept of operations], the deorbit burn was not performed and the vehicle was successfully passivated on-orbit to remove sources of stored energy,” the company wrote in a statement.
“SpaceX is working closely with the government of Poland on recovery and cleanup efforts,” the company added. “There are no toxic materials present in the debris. If you believe you have identified a piece of debris, please do not attempt to handle or retrieve the debris directly. Instead, please contact your local authorities or the SpaceX Debris Hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or at recovery@spacex.com.”
Related: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket debris creates dramatic fireball over Europe, crashes in Poland (video)
Local authorities reported large pieces of debris found near Poznań, a city in west Poland. The Polish Space Agency (POLSA), which had been tracking the flight, confirmed in a statement the same day that the debris was from the Falcon 9.
Marek Fagasik, a Polish farmer from the village of Śliwno, found some of the Falcon 9 wreckage in his field, after a passerby alerted him, according to the English-language news channel TVP World, which covers Central Europe and Poland. Fagasik told a local newspaper he’s exploring options for compensation.
“It’s good that it fell in winter and the losses are not that big,” Fagasik said. “In late spring or if it was very wet, even cars would have a hard time getting there. And there would be losses in crops.”
In 2024, SpaceX launched more than 130 orbital missions. This year, the total will be even higher. SpaceX has already performed more than 20 launches in 2025.
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