In April, SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, exploded during an orbital flight test of its Starship. Before Starship can fly again, the FAA needs to conduct an extensive evaluation, and a safety review is an important part of that.

The FAA is focused on the possible impact of flight testing on public health and property.

The FAA is also working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on an environmental review of the Starship test. The FAA has 135 days from Oct. 19 to assess the impact of Starship and its launch on the local environment.

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William Gerstenmaier said: “It is difficult to give a specific date.” He believes that the lag in regulatory work should not affect the company’s test flight plan.

SpaceX has been developing Starship, which could be used for space cargo and eventually to send humans to the moon and Mars. NASA has awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use Starship to send astronauts to the moon. NASA’s current goal is to implement a manned lunar landing program in 2025, but that goal may be adjusted due to delays in development work.

At the hearing, Gerstenmaier and executives from Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic argued for a multi-year extension of an order that bars the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from imposing safety regulations on commercial human spaceflight missions.

The FAA said in a statement that it had not received an invitation to the hearing. The FAA said keeping pace with advances in the space industry has been a priority and efforts are underway to add staff.

The FAA grounded SpaceX’s Starship after its first test flight on April 20. At that time, the spacecraft’s two-stage rocket failed to separate as planned and lost control, causing SpaceX to destroy the spacecraft. The launch damaged SpaceX’s launch pad, scattering debris from the spacecraft and powdered concrete on nearby land.

The hearing comes as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin work to increase the number of launches of spaceflight equipment and the number of people participating in space tourism and other activities. U.S. aviation safety regulators and Congress are grappling with how to regulate the nascent industry.

The hearing also discussed ways to streamline the FAA’s launch licensing process and provide the FAA with more resources for commercial space flight.

Gerstenmaier said there are many technical hurdles SpaceX needs to overcome to turn Starship into a true lunar lander. The company is eager to conduct more flight tests to learn more about the spacecraft.

“We need to test as quickly as possible, find the issues and fix them, and then fly again,” Gerstenmaier said. “We can’t be held back by regulations.”

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About 7.5 minutes after launch, the rocket completed its landing at Vandenberg Space Force Base. This was the 13th launch and landing of the booster and the 222nd overall recovery of SpaceX’s orbital-stage rocket. This was also the company’s Launch 260th.

“This launch marks SpaceX’s 61st launch of 2023, tying last year’s annual record with four months left before the end of the year,” Zachary Luppen, SpaceX avionics reliability engineer, said at the scene.

The information found that SpaceX initially tried to launch the Tranche 0 mission on August 31, but it was delayed due to an unexpected reaction in one of the Falcon 9 first-stage engines, and the second attempt on September 1 also failed. It was cancelled about 12 minutes before liftoff.

It’s unclear when the series of satellites will be deployed, and SpaceX and the U.S. military have not provided any information on the milestone.

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According to Elon Musk, the operation method of the starship before entering orbit will be adjusted, and the success rate of the second launch will be greatly improved. Elon Musk said: “I think the success probability of the next launch (or entering orbit) will be much higher than the first time, maybe 60% higher, depending on the separation of the levels.” The investment may reach 3 billion US dollars.

Starship is the next-generation rocket developed by SpaceX. Its goal is to send cargo to deep space destinations, such as the moon, Mars, and eventually complete manned landing missions.

During launch, the large Super Heavy booster will separate from the Starship spacecraft, and SpaceX has optimized the separation technology. Elon Musk said that SpaceX will accept “hot staging,” which means igniting the starship engine while the Super Heavy booster is still attached, which is a process during the launch process. Elon Musk emphasized: “This technology was used by the Soviet Union and Russia in space design.”

During Starship’s first launch, the rocket successfully left the launch pad, but multiple engines failed during the climb. When the starship prepares to separate from the Super Heavy, they remain connected as the entire rocket loses control. SpaceX was forced to activate the flight termination system, causing the rocket to explode and disintegrate in mid-air.

The interviewer asked Elon Musk if his commitment to space exploration had been shaken by the acquisition of Twitter? Elon Musk responded: “We’re trying to get to Mars as fast as possible.”

Elon Musk is unwilling to respond positively to some questions. For example, he created an AI company that may compete directly with OpenAI. What is the current status of this company? Elon Musk dodged the question. Starlink may go public, and Elon Musk also bypassed this issue. He believes that it is “illegal” to talk about this topic.

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SpaceX is developing a giant rocket capable of sending humans to Mars, and SpaceX recently began testing a full-size prototype of the rocket that stands nearly 400 feet tall (about 122 meters.) SpaceX’s immediate goal is to get the Starship into full Earth orbit before trying to launch it to destinations like the moon.

SpaceX conducted the first orbital test flight of the Starship from its Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on April 20 of this year. The giant rocket successfully lifted off and flew to an altitude of about 20 miles (about 32 kilometers), but then exploded. The launch caused damage to the rocket’s launch pad and sent debris and dust from the explosion miles away, prompting an “accident investigation” by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Musk deemed the first orbital test flight of the Starship a success and said the SpaceX team “learned a lot from it” and is “ready for the next test flight in a few months. In May, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch a prototype Starship from Boca Chica into Earth orbit within six months, from June 15 to December 15. SpaceX needs a “temporary special authorization” from the FCC and a rocket launch license from the FAA to launch the prototype Starship.

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Elon Musk revealed the information in response to a video released by SpaceX showing highlights from Starship’s first suborbital flight last month. He said that SpaceX will complete the upgrade of the launch pad within a month, and then spend another month testing the rocket on the launch pad before conducting the second flight test of the starship.

Elon Musk’s statement is consistent with previous statements by NASA and the FCC. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson testified before Congress last month that SpaceX had told him the next flight test would be at least two months away. And earlier this month, SpaceX filed a document with the FCC requesting permission to communicate with the rocket during Starship Flight Test 2. The document also lays out a timetable, starting on the 15th of the next month.

If all goes well, Starship could make a second suborbital flight in late July and attempt a soft landing. Starship, SpaceX’s key project, consists of two parts: a super-heavy rocket booster and a reusable capsule. It is capable of carrying more than 100 tons of payload and is capable of transporting people and supplies to and from Earth, the Moon and Mars. NASA has selected Starship as part of its Human Lunar Landing System (HLS) program, which aims to return American astronauts to the moon.

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In a motion filed with the court on Friday, SpaceX asked federal Judge Carl Nichols to allow the company to become a co-defendant with the FAA in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental and cultural heritage nonprofit. Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the FAA earlier this month.

According to the filing, the plaintiffs “do not object” to SpaceX’s intervention. Jared Margolis, senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity and lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said, “It’s standard practice and expected for applicants to intervene in cases where there are licensing issues.”

The group suing the FAA claims the agency should have conducted a more in-depth environmental assessment of the potential impacts of SpaceX’s launch activities before allowing the company to launch the world’s largest rocket-based starship from its Spaceport Starbase on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville, Texas.

The Center for Biological Diversity also claims that the “mitigation measures” the agency is asking SpaceX to provide are insufficient to avoid “significant adverse impacts” on endangered species, their habitats and indigenous tribes in the region.

In its filing, SpaceX outlined the potential impact on the company if environmentalists win the lawsuit, including on its operations and finances. The space company also argued that it would harm the “significant national interest” and scientific interests that could be served by an interplanetary spacecraft.

SpaceX wrote: “If the court rules in favour of the plaintiffs, the FAA’s decision could be set aside and further licensing of the Starship and Super Heavy Rocket programs could be significantly delayed, resulting in serious harm to SpaceX’s business.”

In this lawsuit, the Center for Biological Diversity is asking the FAA to give an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). This is a lengthy process that could put SpaceX’s development of an interstellar spacecraft in Texas on hold for years.

The FAA said in a statement that it has “no comment on the ongoing litigation issues.” SpaceX also wrote in its motion that because the FAA is a government agency, it cannot adequately represent SpaceX’s interests in the lawsuit.
SpaceX in jeopardy

SpaceX Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen issued a statement along with the filing of the motion that further detailed the potential damage to the company if it lost the lawsuit. In the statement, Johnsen wrote that SpaceX has invested more than $3 billion since July 2014 to develop interstellar base facilities and interstellar spacecraft systems.

Elon Musk’s comments following the first full-stack launch attempt last month indicate that the company expects to spend about $2 billion on starship development this year alone.

Johansson also highlighted the future missions to be performed by the SpaceX Starship. SpaceX has signed a major contract worth up to $4.2 billion with NASA, the agency that will use its rockets to send astronauts to the moon. SpaceX has also signed commercial customer contracts, including three missions for billionaires Jared Isaacman, Yusaku Maezawa and Dennis Tito. Johansson wrote that the contracts are “currently worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Starships are also critical to the future of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet business, which has more than 1.5 million customers. To date, “SpaceX has invested billions of dollars in Starlink,” Johansson noted. Elon Musk has previously emphasized the interdependence of the two businesses, and Johansson further reiterated that SpaceX needs Starliner flights to launch its second-generation Starlink satellite, V2.

“Without Starliner, SpaceX would not only be financially harmed by not being able to launch the V2 satellite, but it would also affect hundreds of thousands of people. They are waiting for the Starlink network to be upgraded so they can serve them,” Johansson wrote.

Finally, Johansson noted that losing the lawsuit would result in SpaceX having to “significantly reduce” its investment in its Starbase facilities, which would hurt the company, local employees and the community at large.
First test flight fallout

In the first test flight of the Starship, SpaceX’s rocket, which is nearly 122 meters tall, achieved several milestones. It flew for more than three minutes, but also lost multiple engines during launch, caused significant damage to ground infrastructure, and ultimately failed to reach space after the rocket began to fall and was intentionally destroyed in mid-air.

SpaceX is cleaning up the damaged launch site, where a huge crater was left on the ground and debris smashed into the launch tower, nearby fuel tanks and other ground equipment. In addition, the launch generated dust and sand, with particulate matter reported from as far as 10 kilometres away from the launch pad. The test flight also sparked a forest fire.

Phil Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida Research Institute, is studying the composition of this particulate sample. He believes SpaceX dodged a bullet during the launch, and that the concrete being blown around could have destroyed the rocket on the launch pad.

It could have been a lot worse than it is,” Metzger said. I think they made a mistake in that they took a chance to launch from a concrete surface, but they seemed to have a 70% success rate. They cleaned up the launch tower, tested the first stage of the rocket, got a lot of good data, found an interstage problem, and hopefully will be able to fix that and get better results on the next test.”

Metzger did not assess what ecological impacts the launch pad debris and rocket explosions had on endangered species living and migrating in the area. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office in Texas and other independent researchers are studying the environmental impacts of the Starship’s test flights and explosions.

SpaceX’s motion also illustrates why the Starship ultimately benefits the scientific enterprise. The company writes that the rocket’s unprecedented capabilities “will allow scientists to focus on previously impossible scientific missions and pursue the fastest and easiest way to move from concept to mission.

As an example, SpaceX said, “With its enormous capacity, the Starship can deliver large telescopes and heavy scientific experiment equipment into orbit at low cost, and transport cargo, people and even settlements to other planets or moons.”

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Starship made its maiden flight last week

“There was a hole in the launch pad,” NASA Administrator Nelson told lawmakers at a hearing before the House Science Committee on Thursday. “As of today, SpaceX insists that they believe it will take at least two months to rebuild the launch station, and it will take about two months to prepare the second starship.”

So far, SpaceX, local officials, regulators and environmental agencies have been reviewing flight data to assess the damage caused by the maiden flight of what SpaceX calls the most powerful rocket ever. SpaceX has not yet commented.

A large crater was blown out under the launch pad

On April 20 of this year, Starship’s maiden flight ended about four minutes later. At that time, the starship had lost control and was rolling in the air. So SpaceX activated the flight termination system, detonating the starship. While the Starship’s mid-air explosion received the most attention, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said ahead of the test flight that the launch pad’s damage was one of his top concerns.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday that the Starship launch scattered debris across the 385-acre SpaceX base and state park land. It also sparked a 3.5-acre fire, the agency said. SpaceX is based on a Gulf of Mexico beach east of Brownsville, Texas.

If SpaceX can repair the pad and have another rocket ready for a second flight attempt in about two months, the company still needs permission from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch again. A spokesman for the FAA, which regulates commercial space launches, declined to comment on when Starship might make a second flight attempt.

“The timing of the launch will depend on whether it can be done safely,” he said. Some accident investigations could be concluded within weeks, but more complex investigations could take months, the spokesman said.

Damaged launch pad

Shortly after Starship’s maiden flight on April 20, Musk said he expected to try another launch within a few months but later said the company could be ready in one to two months.

Based on the FAA’s environmental assessment of the Starship program, SpaceX has considered adding additional ground infrastructure at its Texas base to handle launches. Musk recently said that the company has begun adding a large water-cooled steel plate under the Starship base on the launch pad. He said the company did not complete the work before the first launch, wrongly assuming that the launch pad’s concrete material would withstand the test of launch.

“The force of the engine acceleration probably destroyed the concrete rather than simply eroding it,” he said in a tweet about Starship’s maiden flight.

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Starship Explosion Fragments

As of Wednesday, the FWS had found no dead birds or other wildlife on the grounds of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge. These lands are in close proximity to the launch pad and have been designated as critical habitat for the endangered Piping Plover.

“The impact of the launch included many large concrete blocks, stainless steel plates, metal and other objects being thrown thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) while a plume of powdered concrete plume was formed, the FWS said. 6.5 miles northwest of Taiwan became sediment.”

As of Wednesday, the FWS had not recorded any debris on land owned by the reserve, but crews “documented debris covering approximately 385 acres at the SpaceX facility and at Boca Chica State Park.” Boca Chica State Park is leased by FWS and managed as part of the Lower Grand Valley National Wildlife Refuge. “

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According to the news, the SpaceX launch site in Texas did not suffer much damage to the tower and rocket mount as a whole and is relatively intact. However, a huge crater has appeared in the ground at the base of the tower, and it could take months to repair this huge crater. This, in turn, will delay SpaceX’s next launch of the Starship to some extent.

Elon Musk tweeted back that “it looks like SpaceX’s Starship test launch could be ready again in 1 to 2 months”. In other words, Starship is expected to attempt another launch between 1-2 months in the future.

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