WASHINGTON NASA representatives will be part of an ongoing SpaceX investigation into an engine anomaly on a recent Falcon 9 launch as the company prepares for a Crew Dragon mission carrying two NASA astronauts.

NASA spokesman Josh Finch said March 24 that personnel from NASAs commercial crew program will be represented in SpaceXs investigation of an engine that prematurely shut down during a March 18 launch of 60 Starlink satellites. That participation is intended to comply with provisions in SpaceXs Commercial Crew Transportation Capability, or CCtCap, contract with NASA.

According to the CCtCap contracts, SpaceX is required to make available to NASA all data and resulting reports, Finch said. SpaceX, with NASAs concurrence, would need to implement any corrective actions found during the investigation related to its commercial crew work prior to its flight test with astronauts to the International Space Station.

During the March 18 launch, one of nine Merlin engines in the rockets first stage shut down early. Elon Musk, chief executive of SpaceX, said in tweets shortly after the launch that the malfunction did not affect the rockets ability to place the Starlink satellites into their planned orbit, as SpaceX has frequently touted the engine-out redundancy of the vehicle. However, Musk said that a thorough investigation would be required before the rockets next launch.

That launch involved the fifth flight of that particular booster, the first time the company had attempted to fly a first stage that many times. A launch attempt March 15 was aborted at the last second because of what Musk called slightly high power levels from the engines as they ignited, a glitch that Musk said was possibly, but not obviously related to the engine anomaly during flight.

This vehicle has seen a lot of wear, so today isnt a big surprise, he said March 18 of the engine anomaly. Life leader rockets are used only for internal missions. Wont risk non-SpaceX satellites.

While SpaceX routinely uses previously flown first stages for many launches, the Demo-2 commercial crew launch will use a new booster and thus wont be subject to the engine wear issues that may be linked to the anomaly on the previous launch. Finch said that launch is still scheduled for mid-to-late May, a schedule NASA announced March 18, but that the agency would adjust the date based on review of the data, if appropriate.

The anomaly on this launch was the first engine shutdown on a Falcon 9 launch since the companys first cargo Dragon launch for NASAs Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, CRS-1, in October 2012. One of nine Merlin engines failed during ascent, but the Dragon still reached orbit and carried out its mission. A secondary payload, an Orbcomm demonstration satellite, was lost when it was released into a lower-than-planned orbit. That launch involved an earlier version of both the Falcon 9 and the Merlin engine.

SpaceX has not provided an update on the status of that investigation since Musks tweets shortly after the launch, including when the investigation would be completed. SpaceXs next launch, of the Argentine radar satellite SAOCOM 1B, was scheduled for March 30 but has been postponed because of international travel restrictions for the customer linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

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NASA to participate in SpaceX engine anomaly investigation - SpaceNews