This is that odd space law case where the Chinese just let their rockets reenter wherever, and it’s just debris, but SpaceX tries to deorbit in a specific spot, and are in trouble if they miss. What a perverse incentive.
I don’t think they’re in trouble for missing the deorbit target.
The concern is that the second stage didn’t perform as expected. What if that affects the primary mission on the next flight? They need to understand the root cause before they fly again.
As the article states, the upcoming Europa Clipper launch requires an upper stage relight to put the spacecraft on the desired trajectory. If the second burn does not go as expected, the mission could be in jeopardy.
Indeed, according to the article the stage misfired 30 minutes after releasing the crewed Dragon capsule. This is pretty serious and could have had disastrous consequences had it malfunctioned earlier.
Clipper is set to release at the "fastest speed ever achieved by a Falcon upper stage", so they really need the rocket functioning flawlessly to avoid jeopardizing the $5B mission.
It's hardly desirable to let rocket debris reenter anywhere - just because China is doing it doesn't mean SpaceX should be free to dump stuff over populated areas.
Also, its SpaceX that has proactively grounded their fleet in this case, they haven't been ordered to do so by regulators yet.
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Ha.
This makes be suspicious of possible dysfunction at SpaceX. Lots of these in a small amount of time