The explosion of the SpaceX prototype Starship rocket this week has encouraged Federal Aviation Administration to oversee an investigation into the incident. The news follows recent reports that SpaceX violated federal safety rules late last year.
A.n FAA Speaker told CNN through a statement that the study “identifies the root cause” of the “mishap”And explore“ potential opportunities to improve safety as the program develops. ”
Mishap is certainly a word to describe what happened last Tuesday (February 2, 2021) at the SpaceX test facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The high-altitude test of SN9 apparently going well, with the Starship prototype performing a suborbital flight to about 6 miles (10 km), followed by aerodynamic free fall back towards the ground. But things got sore when they came ashore, as “one of the [three] Birds of prey engines did not move and made SN9 land at high speed and experience SOMETHING, ” according to to SpaceX.
By RUD, SpaceX means “unorganized rapid disassembly. “Good fun (and a term used for decades), but the FAA is not laughing, especially since this is now the second explosive crash of the first Starship prototype. happens on 11 December 2020.
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“The FAA’s main priority in regulating commercial space transport is to ensure that activity is safe, even in the face of anomalies,” the FAA said. recitation. Accordingly, the aerospace regulator, which also monitors U.S. air space, will “monitor [Tuesday’s] landing mishap ”introducing a SpaceX prototype.
Musk fans complain, but this is just the kind of thing the FAA is supposed to do. Mar a instructions make it clear, the FAA may intervene as a result of an accident or launch event or reentry, a launch site accident, or if “failure to complete launch or reentry as expected. The FAA may also intervene where damage to the “payload, launch or reentry vehicle, launch aid facility or reentry … located at the launch or reentry site” exceeds $ 25,000.
There are a lot of boxes inspected there, so the FAA is definitely within its limits in this case.
And if I may say so, the aerospace controller may be following up on SpaceX right now with recent events. As the Verge reports, the high-altitude test conducted back in December was unauthorized. Prior to the SN8 test, SpaceX was “seeking to get rid of the maximum public hazard permitted by federal safety regulations,” according to to Reuters, which the FAA subsequently rejected. SpaceX, directed by Elon Musk, went ahead with the announcement anyway.
SpaceX wanted to launch SN9 last week but they could not because of the lack of FAA approval. On Tuesday, however, the FAA had decided to launch a permit, saying that SpaceX had taken the necessary “corrective actions”, the details of which are not yet known, all Reuters said.
That said, FAA recitation which was released before SN9 was launched on Tuesday giving a few comments on what happened to change the group ‘s mindset.
“The FAA asked SpaceX to investigate the incident, including a comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture, operational decision-making and process control,” an FAA spokesman said. “All tests that could affect public safety at the Boca Chica launch site have been postponed until the investigation has been completed and the FAA has approved the company’s corrective actions. . ”
The FAA said there would be “no further enforcement action [the] SN8 is important, ”and the measures requested were incorporated into the launch of SN9.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On its website, the company states that these flight tests are “about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transport system designed to accommodate both crew and cargo. transport on long, interplanetary missions and to help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond. “
That these tests involve semi-control plummet of a hulking prototype rocket partially filled with fuel, and now a pair of explosions that would make Michael Bay blush, it doesn’t seem to be a major concern for SpaceX. Yes, the area just around the Boca Chica test site is empty, but residential and commercial accommodation is located a few miles north at Port Isabel and South Padre Island. So of course the FAA is concerned.
In January 28th tweet, Musk said, “the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken management structure.” The SpaceX CEO is not entirely out of his ideas. The Department for Transport, which heads the FAA, last year developed new rules to update the way the FAA “regulates and permits commercial space operations and allows the aerospace industry to operate. innovation and growth, while maintaining public safety, ”she said. recitation. But as Verge reports, these rules have not yet been implemented.
In his tweet, Musk said that, under current rules, “humanity will never get to Mars. ”Yes, give me a break. History hardly records an American aerospace regulator as the a fundamental obstacle to the Red Planet, but it is clear that the richest man in the world is overwhelmed by not being able to do anything he wants, whenever he wants. Good.