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SpaceX's Falcon 9 cleared to go back to area, FAA says

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has actually been cleared to return to area by the U.S. air travel regulator after it was grounded by an unusual midflight failure, the Federal Aviation administration (FAA) said on Thursday.

The FAA stated it did not find any public safety problems in the anomaly that happened during the failed July 11 launch and the rocket can return to flight operations while the total examination continues.

SpaceX stated in a post on X that it was ready to return the rocket to flight as quickly as Saturday, July 27.

Falcon 9, which is the world's most used rocket, was grounded after one disintegrated in space and doomed its payload of Starlink satellites, the very first failure in more than 7 years of a rocket trusted by the worldwide space market.

In a declaration on Thursday, SpaceX stated that a liquid oxygen leakage resulted in excessive cooling of one of its engine components and damaged its hardware.

A crack in a sense line for a pressure sensing unit was recognized as the reason for the leakage which the failed sense line and sensing unit on the second stage engine will be eliminated for near term launches, SpaceX included.

Falcon 9 is the only U.S. rocket capable of sending NASA teams to the International Spaceport Station. NASA is anticipating to launch its next astronaut objective in August, with SpaceX's Team Dragon astronaut capsule launching atop the rocket.

(source: Reuters)