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Federal regulators gave SpaceX a green light for another test flight of the spacecraft, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, after two explosive accidents rained debris near islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic Oceans earlier this year.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which exempts commercial rockets from launch, said Thursday that SpaceX could move forward with its next launch attempt. Meanwhile, investigation into the latest failure of a vehicle that exploded near the Bahamas was underway, and the agency was confirmed to CNN.
The regulator has decided to allow the company to move forward on another test mission called Flight 9 after determining SpaceX meets all of its strict safety, environmental and other licensing requirements.
The update from the FAA comes after the agency issues a launch license for future test flights on May 15th.
Approval of that license was a key milestone for SpaceX and won as it marked the final step in the much-anticipated approval process. For many years, the company has sought to expand the largest launch it can perform each year from its South Texas facility, home to Starship manufacturing and operational facilities.
“The FAA has approved a change in license for SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Mission,” the FAA said in a May 15th statement. “The approval includes a final lawsuit that allows SpaceX to increase spacecraft operations from 5 to 25 per year at Texas’ Boca Chica.”
At the time, the FAA also noted that it would expand the size of hazard zones that would be locked during the next spacecraft flight, or stopping the aircraft area.
The agency said it made changes in response to two previous accidents, flight 7 in January and flight 8 in March.
SpaceX is also intended to try and reuse the super-heavy rocket booster on Flight 9. The Super Heavy is the largest part of the spacecraft launch system and consists of a 232-foot (71 meters) steel cylinder, a fuel tank, and all 33 rocket engines that give an initial burst of thrust in the lift-off.
SpaceX safely retrieved three super-heavy heavy boosters after launch, with the goal of renovating and reusing rocket parts to reduce costs.
Extended Hazard Area
The FAA said it would increase the size of the spacecraft’s hazard area. It aims to keep aircraft and other vehicles out of the flight path of the launch system – mapped from 885 nautical miles (1,018 miles) in previous documents and then mapped to 1,600 sailing miles (1,841 miles).
According to the FAA, the expanded keepout zone will affect up to 175 flights, with an average delay time of 40 minutes. The agency estimates that such delays would be around $50 per hour for travelers, and passenger airlines would cost $100.80 per minute or $6,048.00 per hour per delayed flight.
“To minimize confusion,” the document states that “the launch window is scheduled outside the peak transport period.”
SpaceX has not yet announced the target launch times for Flight 9.
The FAA also maps debris response areas that it believes can cause a fragment of the vehicle to land if a midway flight explodes.
SpaceX said the wreckage has mostly remained in such areas after both Flight 7 and Flight 8 accidents.
However, in January, fragments of failed spacecraft vehicles from Flight 7 are scattered, especially across the islands of Türkiye and Caicos. There was also one report of property damage. The FAA confirmed at the time that a car had hit the island of South Caicos.
Debris from a failed March test flight also landed near the Bahamas.
“The FAA is in close contact and working with the UK, Turkey & Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, Mexico and Cuba as the agency continues to monitor compliance with all Public Safety and other regulatory requirements on SpaceX,” the agency said in a statement Thursday.
“SPACEX is necessary to update flight safety analysis to take into account all the outcomes of pre-flighted flights and calculate and establish hazard areas,” the statement said.
There were no reports of injuries related to Starship’s previous accident.
In a January statement to CNN, the FAA said it would need to map “sufficient danger areas to ensure SpaceX “on the land or on the maritime ship’s ship, with no chance of casualties exceeding one million.”
Spaceship and the whole picture
The company has faced backlash in relation to recent test flight failures and CEO Elon Musk’s current presidential administration, but the ultimate success of Starship Vehicle is considered important to NASA’s goals.
The space agency has already agreed to pay up to $4 billion of SpaceX to transport astronauts to the moon on two lunar missions scheduled for the second half of the decade.
As the Trump administration suggested, SpaceX’s partnership with NASA could also expand if the agency decides to abolish its own Space Launch System Rocket (SLS). SLS has long elicited criticism for its price tag, according to the 2023 government accountability report.
A White House preliminary budget document issued on May 2 recommended that SLS rockets be abolished after three flights.
Phasing off the SLS rocket could leave the spacecraft as the only option for incorporating astronauts into deep space. This is the destination for the choice of Musk and Mask and Jared Isakuman, Musk confidant who tapped to lead the NASA. (The Space Agency is still waiting for the Senate’s final confirmation of Isaac Man’s appointment.)
SpaceX has long touted Starship as a way to offer affordable prices that will change the game towards its size.
Musk says the price per test flight is around $50 million to $100 million. However, the prototypes that have been fed so far only travel in suborbital orbit and do not have the functions necessary for crew missions, such as life support systems.
SpaceX also needs to haveh the way to refuel the vehicle while sitting in orbit around the globe.
The Starship development process employs an engineering approach called “fast iterative development,” which has sparked controversy.
The philosophy emphasizes launching relatively inexpensive prototypes during the development process, aiming to quickly identify and fix design problems. This method focuses on extensive ground testing that ensures success in the first launch attempt, as opposed to NASA, which accepted SLS, for example.
Due to its unique development approach, SpaceX is known to embrace fiery disasters, but even the failure of a test flight highlights that it can help engineers improve the Starship design.
“In tests like this, success comes from what we learn,” the company frequently states in a statement issued after the failed flight of the spacecraft.
However, such rapid and frequent testing has long served as a fierce cry for critics, having led to prominent and explosive failures throughout the history of the company.