A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company's internet satellites in an orbit so low they are expected to fall into the atmosphere and burn up.
A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday evening carrying 20 Starlink satellites. But minutes later, the upper stage engine failed.
SpaceX blamed a liquid oxygen leak.
"Flight controllers were able to contact half of the satellites and tried to push them into a higher orbit using their onboard ion thrusters," the company said. "But the attempt was unsuccessful, with their orbit dropping to just 135 kilometers above the Earth - less than half the target altitude."
"It is unlikely that our maximum available capacity will be sufficient to successfully lift satellites," the company added on its X website.
She indicated that the satellites will return to the atmosphere and burn up. She did not mention the date of their return.
It is not clear whether the incident will affect future SpaceX crew flights.
More than 6,000 Starlink satellites currently in space provide internet service to customers in some of the most remote areas of the world.
The last launch failure occurred in 2015 during a space station shipment. Another rocket exploded the following year during a ground test.
SpaceX owner Elon Musk said the high flight rate would make it easier to identify and correct the problem.