FAA denied SpaceX a security breach. His Starship SN8 rocket was launched anyway

On December 9, 2020, SpaceX sent for the first time one of its prototypes of the Starship Mars rocket, called SN8, on a high-flying test flight. The successful launch and flight ends with a dramatic and explosive hard landing, which Elon Musk warned in advance, could be the outcome.

On Tuesday, we learn that the entire scene, in spite of the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. regulatory agency that oversees many commercial space activities, and which licenses SpaceX’s Starship prototypes to operate in U.S. airspace.

“Prior to the Starship SN8 test launch in December 2020, SpaceX sought a waiver to exceed the maximum public risk permitted by federal security regulations,” a FAA spokesman said in a statement. “After the FAA denied the request, SpaceX proceeded with the flight. As a result of this non-compliance, the FAA required SpaceX to investigate the incident. All tests conducted by the public safety in the ‘Boca Chica, Texas, may begin, the site was suspended until the investigation was completed and the FAA approved the company’s corrective action to protect public safety.’

This revelation comes on the same morning when the FAA announced that it was finally giving the green light for the successor to SN8, SN9, to make its own high-altitude test flight from the Boca Chica, Texas, development facility.

SN9 successfully launched and flew Tuesday afternoon and then had an explosive accident very similar to the final fate of SN8. The FAA said on Tuesday night that it would open and oversee an investigation into SN9’s “landing accident”.

The FAA later provided more details on the launch of SN8 in December, explaining that “the company proceeded with the launch without showing that the public risk was due to the excessive explosion within the regulatory criteria.”

Basically, the FAA says that SpaceX did not show that the risk to the public due to an exploding explosion wave was within legal limits, but it did go ahead and launched SN8 anyway.

“The FAA has required SpaceX to conduct an investigation into the incident, including a comprehensive review of the company’s safety culture, operational decision-making and discipline of the process,” an FAA spokesman said in an email. . “The FAA-approved corrective actions implemented by SpaceX have improved public safety. The actions were incorporated into today’s SN9 launch. We expect no further enforcement action to be taken on SN8 matters.”

It therefore appears that SpaceX launched a prototype rocket without the necessary regulatory approvals, and the only consequence was to conduct an internal review and delay the launch of the next prototype by a few days.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The launch of SN9 was repeatedly pushed back during January. Last week, it became clear that the FAA was the primary hold, leading Elon Musk to publicly criticize the agency on Twitter.

Unlike its aircraft division, which is good, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure.

Their rules are meant for a handful of expenses per year from some government facilities. According to these rules, humanity will never reach Mars.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 28 January 2021

The FAA nonetheless said Friday it is working with SpaceX to approve a custom license for the launch of SN9.

“The affirmative action resulting from the SN8 incident has been incorporated into the SN9 license for launch,” the FAA said.

“I’m trying to turn this around now and will probably have more to say about it, but I’m just totally shocked that a licensee has violated a launch license and that it apparently has no consequences,” the former FAA official said. Jared Zambrano-Stout wrote on Twitter. “If a licensee violates the terms of their launch license, they did so in the knowledge that an uninvolved member of the public could be injured or killed. This is not an exaggeration. They have a calculated risk to your life and property. taken.”

An FAA spokesman said the agency was unlikely to comment further on the incident.

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