SpaceX bids farewell to one of its most legendary fleets after a propeller failure
SpaceX has said goodbye to one of its most important and legendary fleets in its entire history as a space company. The B1058 spacecraft, also known as the ‘Falcon 9’, had a failure in one of its propellers due to strong winds from the Atlantic, after landing from its 19th voyage.
In the early hours of December 23, the Falcon 9 managed to complete its launch and descent in Port Canaveral, but when it remained on the surface, it presented problems in one of its structures. One of the propellers could not withstand the severe winds of the Atlantic Sea, causing the large structure to lose stability and overturn on the floor of the barge intended for its landing.
“During transportation back to the port, the drone’s propeller overturned due to strong winds and waves,” the company said on its Twitter account.
The lead rocket was recognized for having launched two astronauts and more than 860 satellites into orbit, with a total of more than 260 metric tons, in an average of 3.5 years. Since May 2020, B1058 began its takeoff by carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the first crew members of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, to the International Space Station.
Two years later, it became the first booster from Elon Musk’s company to successfully complete 14 flights during a Starlink mission. From there, the ship would have other successful flights and missions, until reaching the unfortunate descent for the nineteenth time, exceeding the expectations of its creators, since it was originally intended for only 10 missions.
This incident completely ended the possibility of the ship reaching its 20th launch. However, the engineering team had already anticipated this type of problem and newer Falcon boosters have improved landing legs with the ability to self-level and mitigate this type of problem, the company announced in a farewell tweet to B1058.
Source: TIME, DIGITAL SCOPE EDITORIAL, NATHALIA GÓMEZ PARRA