SpaceX Starship probe in US ends with 63 regulatory fixes

Washington — The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has wrapped up a technical investigation into SpaceX’s April test launch of its giant Starship rocket, saying that the company must implement dozens of corrective measures before flying the vehicle again.

The April 20 launch of SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy rocket from Texas pulverised its launch pad on successful lift-off and ascended 40.23km before exploding about four minutes into its flight, as it was attempting to reach space for the first time.

The FAA, which regulates launch site safety and oversees company-led mishap investigations, closed its review on Thursday of SpaceX’s investigation into the launch mishap, according to an FAA safety official’s letter sent to SpaceX.

The letter and the FAA statement cited “multiple root causes” of the Starship failure and 63 corrective actions to take before launching the rocket again. It summarised some of those tasks as hardware changes to prevent leaks and fires, and reinforcing the rocket’s launch pad to prevent a storm of kicked-up debris and sand.

“The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica,” the agency said, referring to SpaceX’s sprawling Starship launch site in south Texas.

The FAA probe’s closure puts SpaceX one step closer to getting Starship in space for the first time — a long-sought testing milestone before the company can use the reusable rocket for commercial satellite missions and human landings on the moon for Nasa.

It is unclear how many of the corrective actions SpaceX has already implemented, which will affect Starship’s next launch timeline.

SpaceX’s CEO and founder Elon Musk asked the FAA “what are the 63 corrective actions?” in a post responding to the agency’s statement on X, the social media site previously known as Twitter that Musk also owns.

In line with FAA regulations, Musk’s space company led the Starship investigation and largely created the list of 63 corrective actions for the FAA to approve. The agency requires SpaceX complete those actions before it can obtain a new Starship launch licence.

The FAA did not publicly release the mishap report detailing the corrective actions.

In the weeks after the test launch, Musk said an internal fire during Starship’s ascent damaged its engines and computers, causing it to uncontrollably stray from its planned trajectory, and that a destruct command was triggered about 40 seconds later than it should have to blow up the rocket.

That automated destruct command is one of multiple “safety critical systems” that SpaceX must upgrade before attempting another launch, the FAA official wrote in the letter.

In a blog post on its website, SpaceX said it has made numerous corrections and upgrades to Starship and its launch pad, including an “enhanced and requalified” flight termination system and an expanded fire suppression apparatus on-board.

Though the probe is done, SpaceX must obtain a modified FAA licence to launch, which entails a sometimes lengthy review of the Starship’s flight trajectory, accident probabilities and other factors affecting nearby public safety.

“Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA licence approval,” Musk wrote in a post on X.

Debris and giant chunks of concrete blasted into the air by Starship’s powerful lift-off sparked fresh environmental concerns over SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site, which in May became the centre of a lawsuit from environmental groups accusing the FAA of inadequately reviewing the site’s effect on nearby nature preserves.

SpaceX has vowed to install a large metal plate on the launch pad for its protection and to mitigate the debris field from Starship’s lift-off, which left a gaping crater in the ground beneath its launch mount.

Calling that destruction a “pad foundation failure”, SpaceX said in the blog post it reinforced the Starship pad and added a flame deflector to withstand the rocket’s fiery forces.

Reuters