Fuel leak was responsible for the SpaceX rocket crash over Europe

Last week, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed after launching a number of satellites over Europe. During the uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, the rocket did not burn up completely, causing some debris to fall to Earth. The US space company has now revealed the reason for this crash. According to the company, a fuel leak prevented a controlled return to Earth.

The SpaceX rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on February 1 and had deployed 22 Starlink satellites in orbit as planned in order to expand the constellation for the company's satellite internet. The upper stage of the rocket was then supposed to perform a turnaround maneuver to enable a controlled re-entry over the ocean, after which it was supposed to plunge into the water. This is the usual process for almost all SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

However, the engines apparently failed to fire properly, causing SpaceX to lose control of the rocket. The Falcon 9 then continued to orbit the Earth until it re-entered the atmosphere uncontrollably over Europe last week due to atmospheric friction. This not only resulted in a visual spectacle in the sky, which could also be seen over Denmark, Sweden and the UK, but also caused debris from the Falcon 9 to crash in Poland.

No personal injuries, investigation initiated

The debris apparently did not cause any injuries, but a tank measuring 1 by 1.5 meters was found near Poznan. An identical part was found in the neighboring town of Wiry. According to the Polish media, a Polish farmer is considering a claim for damages, as one of the pieces of debris caused a crater in his field. However, it has not yet been confirmed whether it is actually debris from this Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX itself now explains in an update on this mission: "During the idle phase of this Starlink mission, a small leak of liquid oxygen occurred that ultimately resulted in higher than expected vehicle hull rates. As a result, per safe mission design, the deorbit burn was not performed and the vehicle successfully passivated in orbit to remove sources of stored energy." SpaceX effectively shut down the rocket stage in flight as it could no longer be controlled. The cause of the leak is now being investigated.

Third Falcon 9 incident in 6 months

Although the aerospace company emphasizes that 115 of 116 Falcon 9 missions were successfully completed with a controlled re-entry last year, SpaceX has recently experienced an increasing number of mishaps. This is the third incident in around six months. Back in July 2024, a Falcon 9 rocket suffered a fuel leak, causing some of the Starlink satellites deployed in the wrong place to burn up and the FAA shut down the Falcon 9 after problems in space.

Half a month later, however, the rocket launches were cleared again so that SpaceX was able to launch the Falcon 9 three times within two days without any problems after a two-week forced break. However, in September, a Falcon 9 crashed into the ocean in the wrong place on its way back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). In this case, SpaceX itself shut down the Falcon 9 rocket to investigate the return problem.

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