FAA gives SpaceX the nod for Starship Flight 9 but doubles the danger zone

Updated The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given SpaceX the go-ahead to launch Starship Flight 9, but has nearly doubled the size of the vehicle’s Aircraft Hazard Area (AHA).

SpaceX’s Starship exploded during the two preceding flights, showering the Turks & Caicos Islands with debris and causing aircraft to be diverted. Flight 7’s destruction was caused by “harmonic response,” resulting in a propulsion leak and subsequent fire. SpaceX has not disclosed the cause of Flight 8’s failure, but the sequence of events was at least superficially similar to those before the abrupt end of Flight 7.

SpaceX has not yet detailed how it addressed the issues from Flight 8, but the FAA was satisfied enough to allow it to proceed with Flight 9, which will feature a used Super Heavy Booster.

Partly because of the booster reuse and partly due to an updated flight safety analysis, the FAA has expanded the AHA for Flight 9 to “approximately 1,600 nautical miles,” which “extends eastward from the Starbase, Texas, launch site through the Straits of Florida, including the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands.” The AHA for Flight 8 was 885 nautical miles.

The FAA said it “is in close contact and collaboration with the United Kingdom, Turks & Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba as the agency continues to monitor SpaceX’s compliance with all public safety and other regulatory requirements.”

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Before Flight 9 could be authorized, the investigation into the Flight 8 incident had to be closed, or the FAA had to determine that going ahead would not risk public safety. Earlier in May, a spokesperson for the FAA told The Register: “SpaceX may not launch Starship again until one of the two options is completed for the Flight 8 mishap and SpaceX meets all other licensing requirements.”

This week, the FAA said it had “conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight.”

Rockets shaking themselves to pieces during launch is not unheard of. In 1968, an uncrewed Saturn V suffered severe longitudinal oscillations called “pogo.” These were caused by vacuums in the fuel feed lines reaching the engines and causing them to skip. Two of the five second-stage engines shut down during the launch, and the third stage would not restart. Detuning the rocket engines and using helium in the feed lines before ignition as a shock absorber reduced the effect.

The launch of Starship Flight Test 9 is likely to occur next week. So maybe don’t take that trip to the Caribbean just yet. ®

Updated to add at 1645 UTC
In a note on its website, SpaceX stated the failures on Test Flights 7 and 8 were “distinctly different,” and that the harmonic response mitigations “worked as designed prior to the failure on Flight 8.”

The biz pinned the blame for Flight 8’s explosion on a hardware failure in one of the upper stage’s Raptor engines “that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition.”

“To address the issue on upcoming flights, engines on the Starship’s upper stage will receive additional preload on key joints, a new nitrogen purge system, and improvements to the propellant drain system,” it added.

We’d still give it while before going anywhere near the vehicle’s flight path.