An investigation into the engine failure could delay SpaceX's upcoming crew launches.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered an upper stage engine failure and deployed a batch of Starlink internet satellites into a perilously low orbit after launch from California Thursday night, the first blemish on the workhorse launcher's record in more than 300 missions since 2016.
Going into Thursday's mission, the current version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, known as the Falcon 9 Block 5, was indisputably the most reliable launch vehicle in history. Since debuting in May 2018, the Falcon 9 Block 5, which NASA has certified for astronaut flights, never had a mission failure in all of its 297 launches before the ill-fated Starlink 9-3 mission.
Assuming the Starlink satellites can't be saved, and if Thursday night's launch is scored a complete mission failure, the Falcon 9 Block 5 still has a 99.7 percent success rate. This is still an enviable number for any launch company.
99.7% success rate is still pretty damn impressive.