SpaceX defied public safety rules in its most recent spacecraft launch over southern Texas in December, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday by approving a license for the company’s next high-altitude spacecraft test flight. SpaceX scheduled for the same day.
In a statement, an FAA spokesman said that the agency on Monday determined that SpaceX “complies with all federal safety and related regulations and is authorized to conduct SN9 starship flight operations under its license to fly. launch”.
SpaceX plans to fly the stainless steel test rocket at an altitude of about 10,000 meters, or 32,800 feet, with three methane-powered Raptor engines. After taking off from its launch pedestal at the SpaceX rocket factory and launch site in Boca Chica, Texas, the 50-meter rocket will rise vertically and shut down its Raptor engines in succession, then fall to the horizontal position and fall from back to the ground, using fins and active fins to control its descent.
Finally, seconds before hitting the ground, the Raptor’s engines will reignite and turn the rocket back vertically to attempt a propulsive landing on a platform near the launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The test window on Tuesday opens at 9am CST and runs until 6:59 pm CST (10am to 7:59 pm EST; 2pm-2359 GMT). SpaceX will provide a live video stream of the launch of the SN9 test.
SpaceX is building and testing prototypes of its next-generation, fully reusable Starship rocket, which, according to the company, will be the most powerful launcher in history. The starship will eventually fly with six Raptor engines, each producing about half a million pounds of thrust, and will be stacked at the stop of an even bigger booster called Super Heavy with about 28 Raptor engines.
The spacecraft will be designed to re-enter the atmosphere from orbit and make precision landings. The Super Heavy will land a few minutes after launch, as will the boosters from the SpaceX Falcon family of operational rockets.
The entire vehicle will be about 400 feet, or about 120 meters, high and will carry more than 100 metric tons, or 220,000 pounds, of cargo into low Earth orbit, more than any rocket in the world. With life support systems and refueling in space, the starship’s missions could eventually transport people to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations.
Starship is central to the vision of SpaceX’s chief executive, Elon Musk, who established the company with the mission of sending people to Mars. The spacecraft is also one of three vehicles competing for a NASA human-graded lunar landing contract to transport astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
But first, SpaceX is taking an accelerated approach to testing the Starship system, first flying prototypes from the upper stage and transport segment in the space of the huge rocket.
The flight profile for SN9 will be similar, but not identical, to SpaceX’s first high-altitude starship test flight on December 9. On that flight, SpaceX said the starship intended to reach a maximum altitude of about 41,000 feet, or 12.5 kilometers, although the company never publicly confirmed how high the rocket actually flew.
The December 9 test flight used the previous test article from the SpaceX spacecraft, called the serial number 8. The launch sequence and descent seemed to go according to plan, but the rocket crashed on the landing pad at high speed after their Raptor engines fail to generate enough power to brake for touchdown.
SpaceX said the low pressure in a fuel collector tank, which feeds the Raptor engine compartment for landing flare, led to a forced landing.
The rocket was destroyed in a fireball, but SpaceX hailed the test flight as a success after collecting data and sampling many of the spacecraft’s atmospheric flight characteristics.
A repeat of the SN8 starship test flight is posted below.
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Video credit: Stephen Clark / Spaceflight Now
What SpaceX and federal regulators did not say in December was that SpaceX launched the rocket without FAA approval.
“Prior to the launch of the Starship SN8 test in December 2020, SpaceX sought an exemption to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal security regulations,” said an FAA spokesman on Tuesday. “After the FAA denied the request, SpaceX continued the flight.”
The FAA is responsible for licensing launches and re-entry into commercial spaces conducted by all American companies. The agency’s role is to ensure that launch and re-entry providers comply with public safety rules, limiting risk to the general population. The FAA also requires that launch and re-entry providers purchase liability insurance to cover potential damage to third party or government property, which helps ensure that U.S. taxpayers are not required to pay for cleaning or destruction of property.
It was not immediately clear whether SpaceX was fined or paid any other penalty for launching the SN8 test flight without FAA approval.
The FAA said it landed SpaceX’s Starship program after the company launched the SN8 test flight without the safety exemption. SpaceX launched the SN9 test vehicle, the next in the company’s mass-produced line of Starship prototypes, from the company’s assembly facility in Boca Chica to the seaside launch site for ground testing.
After a series of test shots in January, SpaceX planned to launch the SN9 vehicle last week. The FAA issued airspace restrictions over the South Texas launch site, but the agency did not grant final approval for the launch, which prompted Elon Musk to criticize federal regulators on Twitter.
“Unlike its aircraft division, which is a good one, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure,” Musk tweeted on January 28. “Its rules are for a handful of expendable launches a year from some government facilities. According to these rules, humanity will never reach Mars. “
The FAA said it demanded that SpaceX conduct an investigation of the SN8 incident.
“All tests that could affect public safety in Boca Chica, Texas, launch site, were suspended until the investigation was completed and the FAA approved the company’s corrective actions to protect public safety,” said a spokesman for the company. FAA. “Corrective actions arising from the SN8 incident are incorporated into the SN9 launch license.”
Last week, SpaceX launched its next prototype spacecraft, SN10, for a second launch pad in Boca Chica to begin ground testing before carrying out the company’s next test flight.
Jared Zambrano-Stout, a former FAA official and chief of staff to the National Space Council during the Trump administration, tweeted that he was in “total shock” that SpaceX violated its launch license. “And there seems to be no repercussion,” he added.
“If a licensee violates the terms of their launch license, they know that an uninvolved member of the public may have been injured or killed,” wrote Zambrano-Stout. “This is not an exaggeration. They took a calculated risk with their life and property.
“Knowing this, the FAA has the responsibility, charged by Congress, which first gave them that responsibility, to enforce their licenses and the parameters of their licenses,” he added. “This (because) every release has the potential to harm the public not involved and taxpayers can be convicted of damages through the indemnity regime. In other words, the FAA doesn’t really care about damage to the licensee, it has a responsibility to protect the public.
“If the FAA does not impose its launch licenses, it will undermine the long-term viability of the launch industry and its credibility with Congress,” wrote Zambrano-Stout. “It is possible that the industry will suffer significant regulatory burdens imposed by Congress to ensure safety.”
A SpaceX spokesman did not answer questions on the matter early Tuesday morning.
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