SpaceX’s Starship rocket booster landed on the launch pad at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on Thursday. Photo by Michael Gonzalez/EPA-EFE
January 18 (UPI) — The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended SpaceX’s Starship rocket launches as U.S. authorities oversee an investigation by the private company into SpaceX’s breakup after Thursday’s test launch.
The upper stage exploded minutes after liftoff from south Texas, and the company declared the unmanned vessel a “loss” on the heavy-lift spacecraft’s seventh test flight.
Starship’s upper stage ignited all six Raptor engines and performed an ascent burn into space. Additionally, a pair of mechanical arms on the launch tower, which the company calls “chopsticks,” grabbed Starship’s return fuel booster stage 6 minutes and 56 seconds after liftoff.
A similar accident with the upper stage occurred during Starship’s second test launch last year.
NASA is paying SpaceX to develop an improved version of the Starship upper stage to carry astronauts to the moon in 2027.
The grounding does not affect SpaceX’s plans to launch Falcon 9 satellites from Texas and Florida.
“Initial data indicates a fire occurred in the rear of the ship, leading to its rapid and unscheduled dismantling,” SpaceX said in a statement.
The FAA announced on Friday:
“The FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct an accident investigation into the loss of a Starship vehicle during launch operations on January 16. There are no reports of public injury, and the FAA is cooperating with SpaceX and appropriate authorities. We have confirmed reports of damage to public property in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The FAA said it “temporarily slowed the aircraft or stopped the aircraft at its origin outside the area where spacecraft debris has fallen. Several aircraft remained outside the affected area. While waiting, the fuel level dropped and a change of direction was requested.”
The FAA has activated a debris response area, which would only occur “in the event of a spacecraft anomaly that causes debris to fall outside of the identified closed aircraft hazard area.”
The FAA also on Thursday ordered SpaceX rival Blue Origin to conduct an accident investigation into the NG-1 mission, which launched the same day from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Although the rocket launch was successful, the first stage booster’s initial landing on the cargo ship failed.
“Our goal is to return to New Glenn service this spring,” the company said in an email to Spectrum News. “Our mission was a success. Our only objective was to reach orbit, thinking that it would be a bonus if we could land the booster ‘So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance’ a few hundred miles offshore.” That was to do.”
Blue Origin canceled the first launch of its New Glenn rocket early Monday after encountering a “vehicle subsystem issue.”
