SpaceX grounds Falcon 9 flights after second-stage issue

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Feb 3 - Elon Musk's SpaceX has paused flights of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket over an unspecified issue that its second stage experienced after successfully deploying Starlink satellites into orbit on Monday, the company said.    After the two-stage Falcon 9 delivered 25 Starlink satellites to space in a routine mission from southern California, the rocket's second stage "experienced an off-nominal condition" as it prepared to deorbit itself as planned, SpaceX wrote on X, adding the rocket stage emptied all its remaining fuel as designed following a mishap.    "Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight," SpaceX said.    Falcon 9 is the world's most active rocket - it launched 165 times in 2025, most of them in-house SpaceX missions to expand its Starlink constellation. A mission failure in 2024 that doomed a batch of Starlink satellites was SpaceX's first such failure with the rocket since 2016.    Monday's mission was not a mission failure. But a problem with the rocket's second stage, if unchecked, could risk future satellite deliveries to orbit or endanger populated areas if the vehicle fails to properly dispose of itself.    Falcon 9's second stage body is designed to reenter Earth's atmosphere after boosting payloads into orbit, using its engines to target a reentry zone away from populated areas should any components survive deorbit.    SpaceX did not indicate how long its mishap investigation will take. A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees rocket launch activities and their impact on public safety, was furloughed amid the government shutdown and did not return a request for comment.

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