The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered SpaceX to investigate why the Starship booster failed during the company’s May 22 test flight, according to a statement released to TechCrunch on Wednesday.
That means SpaceX will have to halt any further Starship test launches until the investigation is complete and the results are submitted to the FAA for approval, reducing the chance of another happening before the company’s expected IPO in mid-June.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“After a thorough evaluation of the operation, the FAA has determined that the May 22 launch of SpaceX Starship Flight 12 resulted in an accident. The accident involved the Super Heavy booster as it flew back into the Gulf of America after phase-out. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property,” the FAA wrote. “The FAA will oversee SpaceX’s investigation, participate in every step of the process, and approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions.”
The problem with the Starship booster occurred minutes into the flight, which was the first launch of the upgraded version of SpaceX’s super-heavy rocket system. The first Starship “V3” passed through the point of maximum dynamic pressure and into space, where the booster had to be separated from the ship and returned to the Gulf for a simulated water landing.
The booster did separate from the ship. But it immediately encountered an apparent engine failure — or a possible series of engine failures — when it attempted to perform the sustained burn intended to propel the booster back toward SpaceX’s launch site in South Texas. This led to the booster falling towards the Gulf before likely exploding on impact.
SpaceX has made a number of changes to the way Starship operates in this third version, intended to make the rocket much more reliable than in the previous 11 test flights. This included tweaks to the booster design, the inclusion of brand new third-generation Raptor engines, and upgrades to the Starship vehicle itself.
The Starship suffered its own failure after the booster separated, losing one of its six predator engines. This contributed to SpaceX abandoning one of its test goals for the flight, which was to do another extended burn in orbit with the Starship.
SpaceX expects its rockets to fail in various ways during this development process, though the goal is to eventually create a vehicle like the Falcon 9 that becomes not only reliable, but also incredibly reusable. Building reusable rockets is crucial to reducing the costs associated with sending heavy payloads into space. As it made clear in its IPO filing, SpaceX is fully reliant on making Starship reliable and reusable in order to continue developing the Starlink service, which is by far the company’s biggest source of revenue and currently its only profitable business.
The FAA ordered SpaceX to conduct multiple accident investigations during Starship development. The federal agency has also ordered SpaceX rival Blue Origin to run them as that company develops its own heavy-lift rocket, the New Glenn.
Just last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to fly again. Blue Origin is expected to conduct its fourth New Glenn launch attempt in the next month or so.
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