The explosive crash of a Starship prototype SpaceX rocket this week prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee an investigation into the incident. The news follows recent reports that SpaceX violated federal safety regulations late last year.
An FAA spokesman said CNN through a statement that the investigation will “identify the root cause” of the “disasterAnd it explores “possible opportunities to further enhance security as the program develops.”
Unhappiness is certainly a word to describe what happened last Tuesday (February 2, 2021) at the SpaceX test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
high altitude test of SN9 seemed to be doing well, with the Starship prototype performing a suborbital flight at about 6 km (10 km), followed by free aerodynamics falling back to the earth. But things got worse during the landing maneuver, as “one of the [three] The Raptor engines did not restart and caused the SN9 to land at high speed and experience a RUD ”. appropriate to SpaceX.
By RUD, SpaceX means “unscheduled quick disassembly”. A good joke (and a term used for decades), but the FAA doesn’t laugh, especially since this is now the second explosive crash of a Starship prototype, the first it happens on December 11, 2020.
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“The FAA’s top priority in regulating commercial space transportation is to ensure the safety of operations, even if there is an anomaly,” the FAA said. statement. As a result, the aerospace regulator, which also oversees US airspace, will “oversee the investigation [Tuesday’s] landing accident ”involving the SpaceX prototype.
Musk’s fans will mutter, but that’s exactly the kind of thing the FAA should do. As it is instructions clarified, the FAA may be involved due to a launch or re-entry accident or incident, a launch site accident or afailure to complete launch or re-entry as planned. ”The FAA may also be involved when damage to“ payload, a launch or re-entry vehicle, a launch or re-entry support facility … located at the launch or re-entry site ”exceeds $ 25,000.
Lots of boxes checked there, so the FAA is certainly within its limits in this case.
And, if I may say so, the aerospace controller could rely on SpaceX right now, given recent events. Like a Virgin reports, the high altitude test done in December was unauthorized. Prior to the SN8 test, SpaceX “sought a waiver to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations.” appropriate to Reuters, which the FAA later denied. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, continued with the launch anyway.
SpaceX wanted to launch SN9 last week but could not due to lack of FAA approval. However, on Tuesday, the FAA decided to allow the launch, saying that SpaceX has taken the necessary “corrective actions”, the details of which remain unknown, according to Reuters.
That being said, an FAA statement released before the launch of SN9 on Tuesday provides some clues as to what happened to change the agency’s view.
“The FAA has asked SpaceX to conduct an investigation into the incident, including a comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture, operational decision-making and process discipline,” the FAA spokesman said. “All tests that could affect public safety at the Boca Chica launch site were suspended until the investigation was completed and the FAA approved the company’s corrective actions.”
The FAA said there would be “no further enforcement action.” [the] SN8 matters ”and that the requested measures were incorporated in the launch of SN9.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On its website, the company says that these flight tests “refer to improving the understanding and development of a fully reusable transport system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-haul interplanetary flights and to help humanity to return to the moon and travel to Mars and beyond. ”
That these tests involve semi-control collapse of a prototype rocket partially filled with fuel and now a pair of explosions that would make Michael Bay blush, doesn’t seem like too much of a concern for SpaceX. Of course, the immediate area around the Boca Chica test site is unoccupied, but the residential and commercial areas are located a few kilometers to the north, at Port Isabel and South Padre Island. So, of course, the FAA is concerned.
On a January 28th tweetMusk said that “the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure.” The CEO of SpaceX is not completely out of line with his comments. The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, developed new rules last year to modernize how the FAA “regulates and licenses commercial space operations and allows the growing aerospace industry to continue to innovate and grow while maintaining public safety.” according to a statement. But, as Verge reports, these regulations have not yet been implemented.
In his tweet, Musk said that under current rules, “humanity will never reach Mars.” Which, give me a break. History will hardly record an American aerospace regulator as fundamental obstacle in the way of the Red Planet, but the richest man in the world is clearly frustrated by the fact that he cannot do everything he wants, whenever he wants. Good.