Major US Launches this Week: • WED CA Falcon9 Starlink - THU FL Vulcan USSF (SRB nozzle burn-through adventure) ▶︎ FRI FL Falcon9 Crew Dragon (RTLS, nice views) • SAT CA Falcon9 Starlink ______ Updated: 14 FEB / 2100 (all times US Eastern) Last week
The nebula for the RTLS burn on Crew 12 was spectacular! The four astronauts continue on their way to International Space Station, and for the first time, the Falcon 9 booster returned to LZ-40.
📸 @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/aU6lWopYnN— D Wise (@dwisecinema) February 13, 2026
B1101-2 becomes the first booster to land on LZ-40 pic.twitter.com/4AZplQMNeN
— Falcon Watchers (@Falcon9Watchers) February 13, 2026
Crew-12 on orbit pic.twitter.com/IaAY17zRu0
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 14, 2026
Dragon is docked with @Space_Station
pic.twitter.com/nrX1aDJsBz— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 14, 2026
I saw that burn through but wasn’t sure what was happening from the single camera view, just that there was a problem.
Sure enough, shortly the announcers confirmed that something happened.
Just hope they make it to the end of the contracts without any major anomalies.
— mech
Yeah, I noticed it real-time, too.
Pucker factor: 9, given its history.
As an ol’ control-systems engineer and multi failure-board member,
I’d love to see how the system was designed/programmed to handle this,
how it actually performed, and how close to its margins it actually got.