FALCON 9 RETURNS TO FLIGHT This morning’s launch of 23 Starlink satellites, seen here transiting the Moon, was the first since a July 11 second stage anomaly during a Starlink mission from California grounded the Falcon fleet. In just 15 days, SpaceX identified and resolved the issue and now has returned to flight. It’s difficult to contextualize how impressive that is. Even working through an anomaly investigation, that turnaround far exceeds the regular launch frequency of every other launch provider in the world. It is also an important reminder that spaceflight is never easy and never routine. Pushing the boundaries of physics, spaceflight is unforgiving, and the smallest hardware deficiency can wreak havoc to an entire mission. The small part that failed on the July 11 mission was part of a redundant sensor system, but the downstream effect of this failure prevented a clean ignition for the second stage’s second burn, resulting in the stage unable to circularize its orbit and deploy the Starlink satellites. The short-term resolution was to simply delete the part! Even as rocket launches become more and more frequent and garner less and less fanfare, there remains countless hard-working individuals and teams making that so. Congrats to all on the hard work. Sometimes you don’t realize how much something means to you until it’s gone. Welcome back Falcon 9 🚀