The giant Starship rocket may be launched into space again, despite the fact that the causes of the accident, which occurred in January this year, have not yet been conclusively determined. This decision was made by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
Statements by the Federal Aviation Administration
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has authorized SpaceX’s next Starship flight, even as an investigation into the failed previous flight continues.
In a February 28 statement, the FAA said it had determined that SpaceX could continue with the launch of Flight 8, now scheduled for March 3, although the investigation into the Flight 7 incident is still ongoing.
“After completing the required and comprehensive safety review, the FAA determined the SpaceX Starship vehicle can return to flight operations while the investigation into the Jan. 16 Starship Flight 7 mishap remains open,” the agency said. “The FAA is overseeing the SpaceX-led investigation.”
During Flight 7, telemetry from the upper stage was lost nearly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. The launch vehicle later broke apart, with some debris falling on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean Sea, causing no injuries and only very minor damage.
Causes of the previous Starship accident
SpaceX said in a February 24 statement that it has completed its investigation into the Flight 7 crash. The company blamed the loss of the spacecraft on a “harmonic reaction several times stronger in flight than was detected during testing” that damaged fuel lines in the aft “loft” part of the spacecraft. Leaks from these damaged pipelines caused a fire that resulted in all but one of the Raptor’s six engines shutting down on command. The autonomous flight termination system activated about three minutes after the loss of telemetry.
The FAA did not specify exactly what caused the delay in investigating the incident. SpaceX’s statement on the investigation indicated that the company had planned to launch as early as February 28, but said early on February 27 that it had postponed the launch to March 3.
AA also announced on February 28 that it had renewed Starship’s launch license for a future Flight 8 mission. The latest revision, dated February 26, notably includes regulations for both suborbital and orbital Starship missions, while previous versions made no mention of orbital launches. This indicates that SpaceX is close to attempt to orbit the spacecraft.
Features of the updated flight license
The revised license defines the activities covered by an orbital mission as activities from liftoff to orbital entry of all payloads or “first sustained orbit” for missions without payload entry, as well as instances where the vehicle returns to Earth without payload entry or without completing an orbit.
The license also includes a new section defining reentry activities, which begins with “activities conducted in Earth orbit or outer space to determine readiness for reentry” and to ensure public safety for those on the ground by landing or collision.
The license separately shifts the start of preflight operations included in the scope of the license from the installation of a flight termination system command on the Super Heavy booster or Starship upper stage, which is done several days before launch, to the ready/unready poll prior to fuel loading, which occurs about 75 minutes before takeoff.
According to spacenews.com
