A fourth SpaceX prototype explodes in flight
Another destroyed Starship prototype; another day of regulatory drama.
SpaceX, having pushed its test flight back a day because a federally mandated safety inspector wasn’t onsite, launched its Starship prototype Tuesday morning amid heavy fog in South Texas. The haze made it difficult to see what was happening. Then a live video from SpaceX froze 5 minutes and 49 seconds after liftoff.
But John Insprucker, principal integration engineer for SpaceX, provided some clarity:
“For those who just joined us, the frozen view we saw on the camera doesn’t mean that we are waiting for the signal to come back,” Insprucker said during the SpaceX video. “Starship 11 is not coming back. Don’t wait for the landing. We do appear to have lost all the data from the vehicle.”
Video shared by NASASpaceFlight.com would later show a massive debris field. “At least the crater is in the right place!” quipped SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Twitter.
His company is developing prototypes of its Starship spacecraft that could one day take people to the moon, Mars and beyond. Tuesday’s launch of SN11, standing for Serial No. 11, was the fourth high-altitude Starship launch from Boca Chica, an unincorporated area of Cameron County located outside of Brownsville.
SpaceX has been rapidly increasing its presence in this community, and Musk would like to incorporate Boca Chica into the city of Starbase. On Tuesday, after the SN11 explosion, he pledged to donate $20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to revitalize downtown Brownsville.
“Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/ South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so!” Musk said on Twitter. “SpaceX’s hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly.”
But this growth will likely come with increased federal
scrutiny. After issues with previous launches — SN8, SN9 and SN10 also caused explosions and debris fields, and regulators said SpaceX violated its launch license with SN8 — the Federal Aviation Administration revised the SpaceX Starship license on March 12 to require a safety inspector be present for every flight. This pushed the SN11 flight from Monday to Tuesday.
“This is the result of FAA’s continuing oversight of SpaceX to ensure compliance with federal regulations to protect public safety, including issues arising from the SN8 launch in December 2020,” the FAA, which issues commercial launch licenses, said in a statement. “SpaceX must provide adequate notice of its launch schedule to allow for a FAA safety inspector to travel to Boca Chica.”
Inspectors are often onsite for U.S. launch activities, but it’s uncommon that a safety inspector is required to be present as part of the launch license, said Jared Zambrano-Stout, a former official in the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transpiration and the current director of congressional and regulatory policy for the law firm Meeks Butera & Israel.
“It is interesting they’re requiring it for the launch,” he said, “because that means they believe the FAA needs to have eyes and ears sitting there for the launch.”
It opens a new chapter in the FAA-SpaceX saga that began in December. SpaceX, prior to the December launch of its SN8 prototype, had sought a safety regulation waiver from the FAA. The FAA denied the request “to exceed the maximum public risk allowed” by the agency’s rules. SpaceX then moved forward with the launch and violated its license.
This became public in January when Musk accused the FAA of having a broken regulatory structure. On Twitter, he implied that the agency was hindering his efforts to reach Mars.
Musk is known for writing opinionated tweets, but this particular message caught the attention of Congress.
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure sent a letter to the FAA “to register our concerns regarding the December 2020 commercial space launch in violation of FAA safety requirements, the FAA’s subsequent response, and the pressure exerted on the FAA during high profile launches,” according to the letter.
Following SN8, the FAA required SpaceX to complete an investigation, including a comprehensive review of its safety culture and operational decision making. The FAA had to approve its proposed corrective actions to protect public safety before SpaceX could launch SN9.
But the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure chastised the FAA for not conducting its own independent review. And it urged the FAA to “resist any potential undue influence on launch safety decisionmaking.”
The committee also asked that the FAA establish a strict policy to deal with violations of FAA launch and reentry licenses and to evaluate its commercial space safety oversight and enforcement posture. It should report to the House committee any changes the agency makes in response to an evaluation.
The FAA said it has received the letter and will respond directly to the committee. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
The company is developing its Starship spacecraft through a fast-paced cadence of testing, flying, failing, fixing and re-testing.
With each Starship high-altitude launch, three Raptor engines are ignited to propel the vehicle upward. The engines shut down one at a time, causing the Starship prototype to enter a horizontal, belly flop-like position. Then the engines are supposed to reignite and flip the vehicle for a gentle vertical landing.
SN10 was the only vehicle to land upright, though it exploded several minutes later.
On Twitter, Musk said “something significant” happened to SN11 shortly after the engines reignited for landing. The company was investigating what happened.
He added that SN15 will roll to the launch pad in a few days.
“It has hundreds of design improvements across structures, avionics/software & engine,” Musk said on Twitter. “Hopefully, one of those improvements covers this problem. If not, then retrofit will add a few more days.”