FAA to oversee investigation of SpaceX's explosive 2nd Starship flightSpace.com By Mike Wall 11/18/2023
SpaceX will figure out why Saturday's (Nov. 18) test flight ended just eight minutes after liftoff.SpaceX will figure out why Saturday's (Nov. 18) test flight ended just eight minutes after liftoff.
The second-ever test flight of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket has spurred an investigation, just as the first one did.
Starship lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas on Saturday (Nov. 18), kicking off a test mission that aimed to send the vehicle's upper stage most of the way around Earth.
The target was a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 90 minutes after launch. But Saturday's flight ended just eight minutes in, with the "rapid unscheduled disassembly" of Starship's upper stage. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) deemed this outcome a mishap and will supervise an investigation into its cause.
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Indeed, SpaceX hailed Saturday's test flight as a success.
"Honestly, it's such an incredibly successful day, even though we did have a rapid unscheduled disassembly of both the Super Heavy booster and the Ship," SpaceX quality engineering manager Kate Tice said during the live webcast. (Super Heavy was supposed to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after launch, but it exploded shortly after stage separation.)
"That's great," Tice added. "We got so much data, and that will all help us to improve for our next flight."
It's unclear when that next flight will take place; that depends on the outcome of the investigation, and how many adjustments SpaceX may need to make before the FAA clears Starship for liftoff once again.
More:
https://www.space.com/faa-oversee-investigation-second-starship-flight