The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is asking SpaceX for an investigation into this week’s Starship check flight that ended up spinning uncontrolled and breaking up.
The FAA stated the Starship’s car and booster particles landed inside the designated hazard areas and there have been no stories of accidents or injury to public property throughout Tuesday’s flight.
“The mishap investigation is targeted solely on the lack of the Starship car which didn’t full its launch or reentry as deliberate. The FAA decided that the lack of the Tremendous Heavy booster is roofed by one of many accepted check induced injury exceptions requested by SpaceX for sure flight occasions and system elements,” the FAA wrote in an announcement Friday.
The Starship, the world’s largest and strongest rocket, recorded its third check flight of this yr this week and ninth since testing started in April 2023. It took off from Starbase, Texas, and the primary couple of minutes appeared to go as deliberate. Round half an hour into the mission, the Starship started to spin uncontrolled and SpaceX misplaced contact with the booster previous to it hitting the water.
“As if the flight test was not exciting enough, Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly. Teams will continue to review data and work toward our next flight test,” SpaceX stated Tuesday.
“Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote Tuesday night time on X, the social platform he purchased in 2022.
