The Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that SpaceX shouldn’t be yet clear for an additional test flight of its Starship Super Heavy launch vehicle.
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The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday said Elon Musk’s SpaceX must keep its Starship Super Heavy rocket grounded, saying the corporate needs to take 63 corrective actions before it’s cleared for an additional test flight.
The FAA has now wrapped its probe into the April launch, which saw the rocket explode mid-flight.
SpaceX CEO Musk had claimed Tuesday, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) which he now owns, that “Starship is prepared to launch, awaiting FAA license approval.”
In an emailed statement, the agency said a final report “cites multiple root causes of the April 20, 2023, mishap and 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence.”
The corrective actions include: “redesigns of car hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews within the design process, additional evaluation and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the appliance of additional change control practices.”
To ensure that SpaceX to resume Starship launches at its facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the corporate will need to “implement all corrective actions that impact public safety,” as determined by the FAA, and to apply for and receive a “license modification from the FAA” that addresses all of its safety, and other environmental regulatory requirements.
SpaceX didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The FAA oversaw the SpaceX mishap investigation while NASA and the National Transportation Safety Board served as official observers. A full mishap investigation report is not going to be made public since it comprises sensitive data including U.S. export control information.
The primary Starship launch saw the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket fly for greater than three minutes — however it lost multiple engines, caused severe damage to the bottom infrastructure, and failed to reach space after the rocket began to tumble and was intentionally destroyed within the air.
The test flight and explosion left a crater in the bottom, flung concrete debris into nearby tanks and other equipment, and impacted sensitive habitat that’s home to some endangered wildlife. It also sparked an roughly 4-acre fire on state park land.
Environmental and cultural heritage nonprofits sued the FAA after the primary Starship test flight, alleging the agency failed to conduct an appropriate environmental review before authorizing SpaceX to move ahead with its launch plans in Boca Chica. SpaceX joined the FAA as a defendant in that matter.
The Starship program is critical to the longer term of the corporate’s Starlink satellite web business. A world network of greater than 4,000 satellites, SpaceX’s Starlink provides web service to greater than 50 countries.
While the service has enabled battlefield communications in Ukraine, Musk has also used Starlink to influence battlefield strategy and outcomes there. He ordered engineers to withhold Starlink’s satellite network service over Crimea so as to thwart a Ukrainian attack on Russian warships, according to a recent biography of the CEO.