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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – the world’s most productive launch vehicle – is ready to return to flight after suffering an end-of-mission failure during a routine trip earlier this month.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches and evaluates accidents, said Thursday it determined there were no “public safety concerns” when the Falcon 9 failed in orbit on July 11, paving the way for the rocket to return quickly to flight.

“This public safety decision means the Falcon 9 vehicle can return to flight operations while the overall investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met,” according to the FAA.

SpaceX has already revealed on its website that it will return the Falcon 9 to work as soon as Saturday, launching a batch of Starlink internet satellites.

If successful, the launch could prompt SpaceX to return to its routine but critically important job of launching astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s tenth such trip – carried out on behalf of NASA – is scheduled to begin flight in August. NASA plans to share updates on the mission today.

SpaceX also has plans to launch a history-making private astronaut mission called Polaris Dawn, which will send billionaire and philanthropist Jared Isaacman and three crew members into orbit aboard the Falcon 9 to conduct the first-ever spacewalk by private citizens . This mission was supposed to start immediately after July 31st.

The Falcon 9, which is the smallest vehicle in SpaceX’s rocket fleet, is the mainstay of the American rocket industry. As of 2024, it has completed more than 60 missions. No other missile comes close to being this active.

The Falcon 9 launched a group of Starlink satellites from California on July 11 shortly before the accident.

The first leg of the mission appeared to go smoothly, with the Falcon 9 using its first stage booster — the lowest part of the nine-engine rocket that provides the initial surge of power at liftoff — to propel itself into space.

But the rocket’s second stage, which was designed to fire after the first stage fell and power the satellites to their final destination in orbit, suddenly failed.

SpaceX later revealed that there was an oxygen leak on that second stage. (Liquid oxygen, or LOX, is often used as an oxidizer or rocket fuel.) This led to what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk described at one point as a “RUD” — or “rapid unplanned disassembly,” a phrase that SpaceX usually used to refer to an explosion.

Despite the mishap, the satellites were safely deployed – but they were put into a much lower orbit than intended, meaning they were likely to be pulled out of space by Earth’s gravity very quickly.

The FAA, which routinely oversees investigations after such accidents, told CNN in an email that it found “all debris from the anomaly has re-entered, and there continue to be no reports of public injury or damage to public property.”

SpaceX asked the FAA on July 15 to assess the threat to public safety, allowing the company to return to flight even as a broader investigation — which aims to determine the “root cause” of the accident and determine how to correct the problem — is not complete.

In a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX said Thursday that it had “submitted our report to the FAA regarding the Falcon 9 launch anomalies, including the probable cause and associated corrective actions.”

The company cited the rocket’s extensive flight history as one of the reasons the company is “able to collect unprecedented levels of flight data and ready to quickly return to flight.”