Falcon 9 second stage fails leaving Starlink satellites in wrong orbit

SpaceX suffered its first inflight failure of a Falcon 9 since 2015 on Thursday, leaving 20 Starlink satellites in a perilously low orbit. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said it was unclear if the satellites could raise their orbits using onboard ion thrusters. SpaceX’s 70th orbital launch of the year initially appeared to go well after lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base Thursday night at 7:35 p.m. PDT (10:35 p.m. EDT, 0235 UTC). The batch of 20 Starlink satellites included 13 that feature the direct to cellphone capabilities. More

(Source: SpaceFlight Now - Jul 12)