The explosive crash of a SpaceX prototype Starship rocket this week has prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to oversee an investigation into the incident. The news follows recent reports that SpaceX violated federal security regulations late last year.
An FAA spokesperson told CNN through a statement that the investigation will identify “the root cause” of the “accident”And ‘explore possible opportunities to further improve safety as the program progresses’.
Accident is certainly a word to describe what happened last Tuesday (February 2, 2021) at SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The high altitude test of SN9 seemed to be going well, with the Starship prototype performing a suborbital flight up to about 10km, followed by an aerodynamic fall back to the ground. But it went sour during the landing flip maneuver, as “one of the [three] Raptor engines did not restart and caused SN9 to land at high speed and experience a RUD, ” according to to SpaceX.
With RUD, SpaceX means “quick unplanned disassembly”. Good joke (and a term that’s been used for decades), but the FAA isn’t laughing, especially considering that this is now the second explosive crash of a prototype Starship, the first happens on December 11, 2020.
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“The FAA’s top priority in regulating commercial space transportation is to ensure that operations are safe, even if there is an anomaly,” said the FAA. statement. Accordingly, the aerospace regulator, which also oversees U.S. airspace, will oversee the investigation of [Tuesday’s] Landing Accident ”related to the SpaceX prototype.
Musk fans will grumble, but this is just the kind of thing the FAA should be doing. Like it guidelines make clear that the FAA may be involved in a take-off or re-entry accident or incident, a launch site accident, or in the event of a “failure to complete a launch or reentry as planned. The FAA may also participate if the damage to the “payload, launch or reentry vehicle, launch or reentry support facility … at the launch or reentry site” is more than $ 25,000.
There are many boxes ticked there, so the FAA is certainly within its limits in this case.
And if I may say, the aerospace regulator can now lean on SpaceX, given the recent events. Like the edge reports, the high-altitude test conducted in December was not authorized. Prior to the SN8 test, SpaceX sought “a waiver to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal security regulations”, according to to Reuters, which the FAA subsequently denied. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, went ahead with the launch anyway.
SpaceX wanted to launch SN9 last week but couldn’t because of the lack of FAA approval. On Tuesday, however, the FAA had decided to allow the launch, saying SpaceX had taken the required “corrective action,” details of which remain unknown, Reuters said.
That said, an FAA statement released ahead of Tuesday’s SN9 launch provides some clues as to what happened that changed the agency’s mind.
“The FAA demanded that SpaceX conduct an investigation into the incident, including a comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture, operational decision-making and process discipline,” said the FAA spokesman. “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 action.”
The FAA said that “no further enforcement action will be taken [the] SN8 issue, ”and that the requested action was included in the SN9 launch.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to one request for comment.
On its website, the company says these flight trials are “all about improving our understanding and developing a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-term, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the moon. and travel to Mars and beyond. “
That these tests include the semi-controlled ball From a colossal prototype rocket partially filled with fuel, and now a few explosions that would make Michael Bay blush, SpaceX doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. Sure, the immediate vicinity of the Boca Chica test site is unoccupied, but residential and shopping areas are located a few miles north at Port Isabel and South Padre Island. So of course the FAA is concerned.
On January 28 tweet, Musk said that the “FAA space department has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure.” The SpaceX CEO is not quite in line with his comments. The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, developed new rules last year to modernize the way the FAA “regulates and licenses commercial aerospace operations and enables the fast-growing aerospace industry to continue to innovate and grow,” while preserving public safety, “said one statement. But as the Verge reports, these regulations have yet to be put into practice.
In his tweet, Musk said that under current rules, “humanity will never come to Mars.” What, give me a break. History will hardly record a US space regulator like the fundamental hurdle to the Red Planet, but the richest man in the world is clearly frustrated because he can’t do what he wants, whenever he wants. Good.