If the last time it exploded, try again.
On Tuesday, SpaceX will attempt its next step in the development of Starship, a giant, next-generation spaceship that Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of the private rocket company, dreams of shipping to Mars one day.
And this time it will take place with the approval of state regulators.
After some arguments with Mr. Musk last week, the Federal Aviation Administration approved SpaceX late Monday for the next test launch. Prior to the final test flight in December, the FAA denied SpaceX’s request to test the prototype, despite analysis showing that the danger to the public was greater than allowed. SpaceX defied regulators and launched anyway.
That short flight to 40,000 feet and then back to a landing site was a huge success in many ways, showing how the mammoth rocket would tip over on its side if it fell back to a landing in a controlled belly flop.
It was also one of the most spectacular pyrotechnics shows in recent rocket development, when the prototype flipped back into a vertical orientation and fired its engines to slow down – but not enough.
Upon impact, it disintegrated into a fireball, leaving a cloud of smoke over the testing site in Boca Chica, Texas, near Brownsville.
The FAA statement showed the agency was dissatisfied with SpaceX’s defiance. Even if Starship landed perfectly, launching without authorization was a violation of the company’s license.
SpaceX has been instructed to investigate and report on this series of events and cease testing that could endanger the public until the company makes changes that satisfied the agency.
This sparked a curious regulatory conflict last week when SpaceX filled the fuel tanks of its next prototype of Starship – its ninth – and looked ready to go. But then the missile stayed on the ground when no FAA approval was received.
At that point, the agency made no mention of the licensing issues with the December launch, and Mr Musk expressed frustration on Twitter, describing the part of the FAA that handles launches as “fundamentally broken.”
Mr Musk wrote, “Your rules are for a handful of consumable starts per year in some government facilities. According to these rules, humanity will never get to Mars. “
The FAA says SpaceX is now complying with safety regulations and giving the green light for the next test flight.
When it launches on Tuesday, the newest Starship prototype will aim for an altitude of about 10 kilometers or more than six miles before returning to the ground, this time aiming to land in one piece.
Mr. Musk’s company has become successful in the start-up business and is now one of the most valuable private companies in the world. The Falcon 9 missiles have become a dominant workhorse for sending satellites into orbit. It routinely carries cargo to the International Space Station and has lifted NASA astronauts there twice in 2020. Further trips are planned for this year.
However, many are skeptical of Mr. Musk’s claim that the company is only a few years away from sending a spacecraft to Mars, saying he has repeatedly set schedules for SpaceX that have proven far too optimistic about how quickly they will come about came.
When he released an update on Starship’s development in 2019, he said that an altitude test would take place within months and that orbital flights could occur in early 2020.
Instead, multiple catastrophic failures occurred due to faulty welding. When the fuel tanks stopped bursting, one of the prototypes made a brief successful flight in September. The earlier Starship model, which resembled a spray can with the label removed, soared nearly 500 feet on a single rocket engine before settling at the test site in Texas.
Jared Zambrano-Stout, a former official with the FAA’s commercial space transportation office, said he was stunned when he saw the agency’s statement on SpaceX.
“SpaceX appears to have violated their launch license and there doesn’t appear to be any impact,” he said.
Mr. Zambrano-Stout, who is now director of congressional and regulatory policy at Meeks, Butera and Israel, a Washington law firm, said he was unaware of any other cases where the FAA has denied a startup license or where a company has gone unauthorized started by the FAA
“It’s important for people to understand that it isn’t the FAA’s job to prevent launches,” he said. “They deal with the introduction of licenses.”
The agency’s job is to keep the so-called “innocent public” safe – people not involved with SpaceX or the launch, so that someone just walking around or sitting at home won’t be injured or killed if something goes wrong.
“I think it would be really difficult to come up with an example of where the FAA prevented SpaceX from doing what it wanted,” Zambrano-Stout said before the incident in December.
While SpaceX continues development on Starship, it has already launched three more missiles this year. One mission, Transporter-1, launched Sunday and carried 133 commercial and government spacecraft (as well as 10 of SpaceX’s Starlink Internet satellites). It launched SpaceX’s entry into the business known as ridesharing, where numerous customers pay a fraction of the cost of a trip to orbit.
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