WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has accomplished the mishap investigation in SpaceX’s first integrated Starship launch in April but just isn’t ready yet to approve a second launch of the vehicle.
In a Sept. 8 statement, the FAA said it accomplished the investigation into the April 20 launch of the Starship vehicle and its Super Heavy booster from the corporate’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. The vehicle suffered several failures of Raptor engines within the booster during its ascent, later tumbling before being destroyed by a flight termination system 4 minutes after liftoff.
The FAA said the report itself is not going to be released since it accommodates proprietary and export-controlled information. The agency said the report found “multiple root causes” for the mishap but didn’t discover any of them.
SpaceX, in a separate statement, said that leaking propellant within the aft end of the Super Heavy booster created fires that severed connections with the first flight computer. “This led to a lack of communications to the vast majority of booster engines and, ultimately, control of the vehicle,” the corporate said.
The FAA, which oversaw the SpaceX-led investigation, noted the investigation identified 63 corrective actions SpaceX must complete before one other launch.
“Corrective actions include redesigns of auto hardware to stop leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to extend 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 applying of additional change control practices,” the FAA stated.
SpaceX said it has added “leak mitigations” to the booster and improved testing, together with a “significantly expanded” fire suppression system within the booster’s engine bay. The corporate said it also improved the reliability of the autonomous flight termination system, which took longer to operate than expected on the April launch.
The completion of the investigation doesn’t mean the FAA has approved plans for one more launch. “SpaceX must implement all corrective actions that impact public safety and apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements prior to the following Starship launch.”
The FAA, in its letter to SpaceX informing the corporate that the mishap investigation was now closed, noted that the unique Starship launch license covered only a single flight. SpaceX must apply for a license modification for added launches, and as a part of that process show it has implemented the corrective actions.
It’s unclear exactly how much progress SpaceX has made on those corrective actions. Along with the measures mentioned in its statement, the corporate has taken steps to mitigate damage to the pad, adding a water deluge system to stop the thrust from the engines within the Super Heavy booster from damaging the concrete pad, as happened on the April launch.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said in June that the corporate made “well over a thousand” changes to the vehicle. That appeared to incorporate changes beyond what was needed to answer the mishap, resembling switching to an approach called “hot staging” where the Starship upper stage will ignite its engines before separating from the Super Heavy booster, a move intended to spice up payload performance.
SpaceX said within the statement it made “a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed throughout the first flight test,” resembling the move to a hot-staging architecture. Other changes include an electronic thrust vector control system for the Raptor engines in Super Heavy that’s more reliable and energy efficient than the unique hydraulic system.
SpaceX has been moving ahead with preparations for second integrated Starship/Super Heavy flight. It rolled out a Starship vehicle designated Ship 25 to the pad Sept. 5 and installed it on top of Booster 9, which had accomplished a static-fire test Aug. 25.
“Starship is able to launch, awaiting FAA license approval,” posted Musk. Neither SpaceX nor the FAA estimated how long it will take to get a license approved.