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The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded its critical review of SpaceX ’s probe of the 2d Starship launch in November , with the governor articulate Monday that it take the “ root causes and 17 corrective actions ” identified by the company .
While this means the investigation is now closed , SpaceX must go through all the corrective actions and put on for a qualify launch license before it can fly spaceship again .
“ The FAA is value SpaceX ’s license change request and expects SpaceX to submit additional require info before a terminal determination can be made , ” the regulator say in a statement Monday .
SpaceX’ssecond orbital trajectory testof the nearly 400 - metrical unit - tall spaceship rocket in November go farther than the first exam by a huge gross profit : all 33 of the Raptor engines on the Super Heavy relay transmitter power on successfully and none failed in the trend of the nearly three - minute rising burning . The company also pulled off a spectacularly unmanageable “ raging - leg separation ” for the first clip , wherein the Starship upper stage lit up to push away from the booster .
But like the first test , which come about last April , it terminate in a fiery explosion mid - air . When any rocket engine launching encounters catastrophic issues during escape , the FAA unfold what ’s live as a “ mishap investigation ” — that ’s what ’s pass here . These are led by the company and reviewed by regulator , who must signalise off on the psychoanalysis and ensure the corrective military action are really follow through . After the first test , the FAA direct SpaceX to complete 63 corrective action .
Per the FAA , the company ultimately identified seven change to the promoter and 10 to the Starship fomite :
“ Seven booster disciplinary action were key out , include redesigns of vehicle hardware to increase tank filtration and trim slosh , updated thrust vector control system model , reevaluation of engine analyses base on OFT-2 data , and updated locomotive engine control algorithms . Ten Starship corrective action mechanism were identified , let in hardware redesigns to increase robustness and cut complexity , hardware change to reduce leaks , operational changes eradicate pre - second locomotive cutoff propellant dumps , inflammability depth psychology update , installation of additional fervidness protection , creation of analytic direction , functioning of transient load analysis , and modeling update . ”
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In an update also published Monday , SpaceX demystified some of these disciplinal actions in a rare post - launch postmortem , with the company noting that the likely root cause of the supporter ’s “ speedy unscheduled disassembly ” — aerospace jargon for “ explosion ” — was a filter occlusion in one of the Raptor locomotive engine . This engine failed “ energetically , ” the company say , which lead to a total loss of the booster .
The Starship upper stage met its own terminal around seven minutes into the flight of stairs , when a propellant news leak start a fire that severed communication between the ballistic capsule ’s onboard computers . This leave to an engine shutdown , which then triggered the autonomous flight end point arrangement to destroy the vehicle .
Some of these computer hardware change and excogitation upgrade have already been bring out to the versions of the vehicle that will vanish for the third orbital flight trial , SpaceX allege in the update . Company CEO Elon Musk said during a conversation on his societal media program , X , that mission could take place as soon as the 2d calendar week of March .
“ More Starships are quick to fly , putting flight hardware in a trajectory surroundings to learn as chop-chop as possible . Recursive improvement is all-important as we work to progress a fully reusable launch organisation capable of carrying satellite , payloads , crew , and loading to a variety of orbits and Earth , lunar , or Martian landing place sites , ” SpaceX said in the update .
Ultimately , SpaceX is get to complete the full military mission profile , which includes the Super Heavy booster complete a “ boost back burn ” and execute a see to it splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico . Starship would then wing halfway around the world and land in the Pacific Ocean .
