SpaceX prototype flies, flips, bellyflops
Landing ends in fireball after South Texas launch, but staff unfazed
SpaceX on Tuesday crashed its second Starship prototype in South Texas, continuing its fastpaced cadence of flying, failing and fixing.
The launch of Starship SN9, which stands for Serial No. 9, occurred less than two months after SN8 launched from the Boca Chica SpaceX facility outside of Brownsville.
During both flights, three Raptor engines ignited and the vehicle began to climb upward. The engines were intentionally shut down one at a time, causing the Starship prototype to enter a horizontal, belly flop-like position. Then the engines were supposed to reignite and flip the vehicle for a gentle vertical landing. But both SN8 and SN9 landed hard and in flames.
“We’ve just got to work on that landing a little bit,” said John Insprucker, principal inte
gration engineer for SpaceX, on Tuesday while providing commentary for the company’s live video of SN9.
“This is a test flight. The second time we have flown Starship in this configuration,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of good data, and the primary objective to demonstrate control of the vehicle in the subsonic re-entry looked to be very good.”
SN9 traveled more than 6 miles above South Texas. SN10 is already at the launch site, waiting for its chance to stick the landing.
SpaceX is developing the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket to carry people to the moon, Mars and beyond. SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks passionately about making humans a multi-planetary species.
But his desire for speed has caught SpaceX in regulatory cross hairs, and this ultimately prevented SN9 from launching last week.
Prior to the company’s high-altitude SN8 launch in December, SpaceX sought a waiver to exceed the maximum public risk allowed by federal safety regulations. The Federal Aviation Administration, which issues licenses for commercial launches, denied the request. SpaceX proceeded with the flight anyway.
SpaceX was pleased with the SN8 test in December, but the FAA was not amused. It suspended Boca Chica testing that could affect public safety until SpaceX completed an investigation and proposed corrective actions to protect public safety.
As such, the FAA halted SpaceX from launching last week. And this prompted a tense backand-forth between Musk and the FAA.
“Unlike its aircraft division, which is fine, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure,” Musk said on Twitter. “Their rules are meant for a handful of expendable launches per year from a few government facilities. Under those rules, humanity will never get to Mars.”
In return, the FAA said it would not compromise safety.
“While we recognize the importance of moving quickly to foster growth and innovation in commercial space, the FAA will not compromise its responsibility to protect public safety,” the FAA said. “We will approve the modification only after we are satisfied that SpaceX has taken the necessary steps to comply with regulatory requirements.”
Ultimately, the FAA granted its approval late Monday. In a statement, it said SpaceX “complies with all safety and related federal regulations and is authorized to conduct Starship SN9 flight operations.”
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
“I cannot think of any other example where a commercial space company has violated a launch license intentionally,” Jared Zambrano-Stout, director of congressional and regulatory policy for the law firm Meeks, Butera & Israel, told Hearst Newspapers.
On Twitter, he said it’s important that the FAA enforces launch licenses. This protects the public and the long-term viability of the launch industry.