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For the third time in 11 months, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a flight of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket.
Starship launched for the third time on Thursday (March 14), roaring in the skies from SpaceXThe Starbase site in South Texas. The company had aimed to bring both elements of Starship (its Super Heavy first-stage booster and its Starship upper stage) to Earth for ocean landings, but both vehicles ended up breaking up in the atmosphere.
Therefore, the test flight is considered a mishap and the FAA wants to know what happened. The agency announced this morning (March 15) who will oversee a SpaceX-led investigation into Thursday’s events.
Related: Relive the third SpaceX Starship flight test in stunning photos
The 400 feet high (122 meters) Starshipthat SpaceX is developing to transport people and cargo to the moon and Marsflew for the first time in April 2023in a test flight that lasted just four minutes.
He flew to the skies again in November, achieving several important milestones, including a successful stage separation. But that second test mission ended after just eight minutes.
The FAA oversaw SpaceX’s investigations into both flights. The first probe identified 63 corrective actions that the company needed to take before launching again, and the second found 17 fixes required.
The number is likely to be even lower for flight number three, given the progress made by Starship. For example, Super Heavy accelerated its “boost” burn after separating from the upper stage, although the giant booster failed to properly execute its landing burn and broke up about 1,515 feet (462 meters) above the Gulf of Mexico.
Starship’s upper stage reached orbital speed and reached its proper “coastal” trajectory, en route to a planned landing in the Indian Ocean. The vehicle rolled a little when getting back in. earth atmospherehowever, and broke about 50 minutes after launch.
It is unclear when Starship’s fourth test flight will take place; The FAA will not consider granting a launch license until the investigation into the current mishap is completed and SpaceX has implemented any required corrective actions, whatever they may be. But it’s safe to assume that SpaceX will be ready to fly when it gets the green light.
“Today we have four spacecraft and four Super Heavy boosters built, and more will come off the production line as our flagship factory continues to grow,” Siva Bharadvaj, SpaceX space operations engineer, said during a webcast of Thursday’s launch. .
“These vehicles are planned for future flight tests like today’s,” he added. “In fact, just this week, we statically fired our next planned ship to fly and hope to test the booster as soon as the launch stand is clear from today’s flight test.”
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