FAA gives approval for next Starship test flight

AUSTIN, Texas — The Federal Aviation Administration has given its approval for the next flight of SpaceX’s Starship even while the investigation into the failed previous flight continues.

In a statement Feb. 28, the FAA said it had determined SpaceX could proceed with the Flight 8 launch, now scheduled for as soon as March 3, although the mishap investigation into the Flight 7 mission is ongoing.

“After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open,” the agency stated. “The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation.”

On Flight 7, telemetry from the upper stage was lost nearly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The vehicle later broke apart, with some debris falling on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean, causing no injuries and only very minor damage.

In a Feb. 24 statement, SpaceX said it had completed the investigation into the Flight 7 mishap. It blamed the loss of the vehicle on a “harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing” that damaged propellant lines in the aft “attic” section of the vehicle. Leaks from those damaged lines triggered fires that led all but one of the six Raptor engines in the vehicle to perform commanded shutdowns. The vehicle triggered its autonomous flight termination system about three minutes after loss of telemetry.

The FAA did not elaborate on what was keeping the mishap investigation open. In SpaceX’s statement about the investigation, it stated it was planning a launch as soon as Feb. 28, but said early Feb. 27 that it had rescheduled the launch for March 3.

The FAA also announced Feb. 28 that it had updated its launch license for Starship for the upcoming Flight 8 mission. The latest revision, dated Feb. 26, notably includes provisions for both suborbital and orbital Starship flights, whereas previous versions made no mention of orbital launches. It suggests that SpaceX is close to attempting orbital flights of the vehicle.

The revised license defines activities covered under an orbital mission as those from liftoff to the deployment of all payloads or the “first steady-state orbit” for missions without any payload deployments, as well as cases where the vehicle instead returns to Earth without a payload deployment or completing an orbit.

The license also includes a new section defining reentry activities, which start with “the activities conducted in Earth orbit or outer space to determine reentry readiness” and ensuring public safety for those on the ground, through a landing or impact.

The license separately shifts the start of pre-flight operations included in the scope of the license from the installation of flight termination system ordinance on either the Super Heavy booster or Starship upper stage, done days before launch, to go/no-go poll before propellant loading, which takes place about 75 minutes before liftoff.

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