The FAA has granted approval for the Falcon 9 launch of ESA’s Hera asteroid mission, but is keeping the vehicle grounded for now for other missions.

“The FAA has determined that the absence of a second stage reentry for this mission adequately mitigates the primary risk to the public in the event of a reoccurrence of the mishap experienced with the Crew-9 mission,” the agency stated. The second stage will propel Hera on an Earth-escape trajectory and thus will not reenter.