FAA investigation of SpaceX's Starship explosion is over but the rocket remains grounded
Jamie GrohAfter the explosive end to the first launch attempt of a fully integrated Starship Super Heavy rocket from Texas in April, SpaceX was ready to give it another shot — but the Federal Aviation Administration continues to throw cold water on the company's launch fever.
In a statement issued Friday, the FAA said it has wrapped up a technical investigation into April's test launch, which decimated a launch pad and resulted in the uncontrollable cartwheel and eventual explosion of the nearly 400-foot rocket littering debris across the Gulf of Mexico.
But even with the investigation now closed and root causes identified, the FAA won't grant permission for another Starship launch attempt — yet.
The oversight agency said that SpaceX must implement dozens of corrective actions before the massive launch vehicle designed for missions to the moon and beyond gets another shot at leaving the ground. That comes even as a brand new, fully integrated Starship vehicle sits on its Texas launch mount waiting to fly.
FAA investigation found 63 corrective actions needed
Though SpaceX may be ready to fly Starship again, the FAA is not ready to issue a license to do so.
"The closure of the mishap investigation does not signal an immediate resumption of Starship launches at Boca Chica," the FAA statement said. "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 next Starship launch."
The results of the FAA's investigation revealed 63 corrective actions that SpaceX must implement before it can even apply for another launch license. Those actions extended from redesigning the Starship and its launch pad to implementing additional review, analysis, and testing of safety systems.
A list of what specific actions SpaceX must take, however, was not made public. It also remains unclear how many of the action items SpaceX has already made progress with or has closed out entirely, though the company did outline Friday some of the progress its made so far.
Rocket launch schedule:Upcoming Florida launches and landings
SpaceX's response and corrective actions taken so far
In a statement issued Friday, SpaceX said, "Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned that are directly contributing to several upgrades being made to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future Starship flights."
In a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said last week, "Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval."
That update follows weeks of testing and integration of the newest Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster at SpaceX's Texas development facility called Starbase. One of those tests included simultaneously firing the booster's 33 Raptor engines.
As the company has prepared for its next test flight, it has performed upgrades and implemented changes in parallel to satisfy some of the FAA's requirements.
"SpaceX has since implemented leak mitigations and improved testing on both engine and booster hardware. As an additional corrective action, SpaceX has significantly expanded Super Heavy’s pre-existing fire suppression system in order to mitigate against future engine bay fires," the company said Friday.
"SpaceX has enhanced and requalified the Autonomous Flight Safety System to improve system reliability. SpaceX is also implementing a full suite of system performance upgrades unrelated to any issues observed during the first flight test," the company said.
Other improvements that the company has already made headway with include improvements to Starship's launch pad.
During the April test flight, large masses of concrete were flung hundreds of feet into the ocean. Part of the problem was that SpaceX did not have any type of suppression or deflection systems that would have protected the launch pad's hardware and foundation as the Super Heavy booster's engines roared to life to produce more than 16 million pounds of thrust.
"SpaceX also made significant upgrades to the orbital launch mount and pad system in order to prevent a recurrence of the pad foundation failure observed during the first flight test," the company said Friday. "These upgrades include significant reinforcements to the pad foundation and the addition of a flame deflector, which SpaceX has successfully tested multiple times."
All signs point to another Starship test flight sooner rather than later, but SpaceX still has to apply for a launch license.
The review process to obtain a launch license can be lengthy, even if a launch provider has been granted one before. It can involve environmental impact and safety assessments, reviews of the rocket's flight path, assessment of accident probabilities, and approval of emergency response options.
SpaceX, however, is eager to get back to flight.
"Testing development flight hardware in a flight environment is what enables our teams to quickly learn and execute design changes and hardware upgrades to improve the probability of success in the future," SpaceX said.
Why is Starship important?
SpaceX's reason for Starship and Super Heavy hinges on Musk's belief that humanity needs to become a multi-planetary, space-faring species.
Musk sees Starship as the vehicle that will help SpaceX fulfill its vision of putting human boots on Mars. He ultimately wants hundreds of people traveling to the red planet in each Starship. But it's also an important component of NASA's lunar-focused, multi-billion-dollar Artemis program.
Last year the agency awarded SpaceX $2.9 billion specifically for Starship development. If that architecture works out, Starship is envisioned as the vehicle that will put the next set of American astronauts on the surface of the moon during NASA's Artemis III mission slated to happen sometime before the end of this decade.
And Starship's orbital test flight means business for Florida, too: if all goes well with the orbital flight test and the program overall, SpaceX plans on launching Starship from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in the coming years. Missions with Starlink satellites, science payloads, and flights with crews destined for the moon and Mars are all in the planning phase.
For the latest launch schedule updates, visit floridatoday.com/launchschedule.
Contact Jamie Groh at JGroh@floridatoday.com and follow her on X at @AlteredJamie.