FAA: No Starship/Superheavy launch before late November
In response to speculation that the fifth Starship/Superheavy test launch could happen in mid-October — based on a recent notice to mariners from the Coast Guard, the FAA on Wednesday made it clear that its stonewalling of SpaceX will continue.
“We are not issuing launch authorization for a launch to occur in the next two weeks — it’s not happening,” an FAA spokesman said Wednesday afternoon. “Late November is still our target date.”
The report comes from the San-Antonio Express-News, and as is typical of the reporting in the propaganda press, the article only gives the FAA’s side of this story, making absolutely no mention of SpaceX’s detailed and very public objections. As far as this news outlet is concerned, the FAA is god, whatever it says must be true. So much for a skeptical free press whose goal is supposed to be to hold government accountable.
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In response to speculation that the fifth Starship/Superheavy test launch could happen in mid-October — based on a recent notice to mariners from the Coast Guard, the FAA on Wednesday made it clear that its stonewalling of SpaceX will continue.
“We are not issuing launch authorization for a launch to occur in the next two weeks — it’s not happening,” an FAA spokesman said Wednesday afternoon. “Late November is still our target date.”
The report comes from the San-Antonio Express-News, and as is typical of the reporting in the propaganda press, the article only gives the FAA’s side of this story, making absolutely no mention of SpaceX’s detailed and very public objections. As far as this news outlet is concerned, the FAA is god, whatever it says must be true. So much for a skeptical free press whose goal is supposed to be to hold government accountable.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
from the article:
“… SpaceX has an FAA license to launch Starship with the same configuration and flight profile it used during the fourth flight on June 6. That one saw the lower-stage Super Heavy booster land in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Boca Chica Beach and the upper-stage Starship splash down in the Indian Ocean. …”
“… The FAA confirmed Monday that SpaceX has not indicated it wants to fly the fifth mission under the old profile. However, if SpaceX changed its mind, it would have to notify the FAA at least 60 days before, according to federal regulations. …”
I do not see the purpose of SpaceX declining to fly another flight 4 profile flight. Starship is key and the engineers would benefit greatly from another reentry test. And a flawless booster landing in the Gulf would go a long way towards showing the public that the booster is ready for a tower catch.
Steve Richter: In July and August I agreed with you. However, SpaceX however did not, and no matter how many times you say you think they should repeat flight #4 on flight #5, you are not in a position to make that judgment, at all.
Note too that it appears to me that SpaceX decided to go with a chopstick landing on #5 sometime in late July, when Musk said publicly he was considering it. He knows best, and his track record proves that. I suspect at that time he was confident the FAA would approve this plan quickly, as a chopstick landing has always been part of the test program and had been previously reviewed during the environmental reassessment.
In this he was too naive. The FAA is not there to protect public safety, but to protect the power of the federal government and the Democratic Party it supports.
In other FAA news . . .
The FAA is restricting efforts to help Hurricane Helene victims.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1842252268856324160/photo/1
“So much for a skeptical free press whose goal is supposed to be to hold government accountable.”
In fairness, the Fourth Estate has shown a willingness to be critical of Government: 1980 – 1992, 2000 – 2008, 2016 – 2020.
FAA has announced that it sees no need for investigation of the ULA Vulcan SRB malfunction.
All I can say is that if the nozzle burn-through had been roughly inward instead of outward, the adjacent main engine would have been destroyed.
Or if the burn-through had happened later in time, closer to MAX-Q, the rocket would likely have been destroyed by the angle of attack caused by the asymmetrical thrust.
It was pure luck that the mission was not lost. I guess ULA contributes to the right party!
Steve Richter,
I’ve been a test engineer with spacecraft, and I have designed space instruments, including a small amount of development of items we needed. Repeating a test is a waste of resources if you aren’t going to learn enough from it. Moving on to the next phase of development is much more useful and a much better use of resources.
It might be a lot of fun to watch a rocket launch, but development is not for fun. It is for business, and getting a product to market quickly generates revenue sooner. It can be the difference between a successful business and a failed business. Virgin Orbit is a good example of a delay resulting in a failed business.
Getting a product to market quickly can mean being an early provider of the product or service. It can be the difference between harvesting early customers or depending upon the late customers (separating the wheat from the chaff). Starlink’s early entry in the constellation internet business has paid off well for it, leaving the next companies in this market hoping to sell to the remaining customers. Despite many of these companies starting around the same time, Starlink has been cultivating customers for a few years, and the others are still many months away from beta testing their constellations.
SpaceX has goals for Starship, and they don’t want to sit around repeating tests when they need to be advancing to the next series.
This is why they stopped their landing tests once they figured out how to do it. It would have been fun to watch more of these tests succeed as SpaceX gained some experience, but they needed to move on to the next series, the integrated launch.
Neither of us have insight into what they are thinking, but it is very clear that to relaunch test flight 4 is not going to get them where they need to go in a timely manner. Otherwise, they would do it. We are just going to have to live with the fact that SpaceX does not waste its resources on frivolous tests.
good discussion on the NSF YouTube channel. Starting around the 1:32 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/live/Itf54FPP8aY?si=20-xDhfrtv3YYEhx&t=5558
They make a good point that SpaceX needs the booster catch to work to achieve the launch cadence needed to meet the terms of the NASA moon mission contract.
Elon appeared with Trump at the Butler PA rally.
He has really rolled the dice now.
I suspect flight 5 won’t occur until after Inauguration Day. Or never if Trump isn’t elected. Yes, I know NASA and DoD need Stsrship
But a Harris administration will be driven more by spite and hatred than by National Security or National Pride ( the real kind not the rainbow kind) consideration.
“… He has really rolled the dice now. …”
yeah, I am not impressed by political Elon. Much respect for getting out there and speaking to people. And of course, buying twitter and ensuring that it does not censor people is awesome.
Notice he did not say anything critical of Harris. He took a cheap shot at 80+ year old Biden for not being able climb the stairs. Not sure if he said anything positive about Trump other than that his victory would prevent the Democrats from destroying democracy.
Elon has been making the point that California now does not allow voter ID requirements in the state. I have been voting for a long time and have never had to present ID. They match my signature and I vote. The big problem with voting is mail in ballots. Since states allow vote by mail, how would a voter id requirement be applied to those who vote by mail?
His other main theme is that if democrats win the presidency this will be our last free election. Yes, democrats are hostile to free speech. They are bringing in immigrants to replace the native born working class. But republicans are likely to take the Senate. And if they lose the house that is pretty much their own fault. Point being, how does democracy die if Republicans control the Senate and the Supreme Court has a conservative majority?
Voting by mail really should be terminated. That would solve the ID problem for *that*.
Absentee ballots have long been allowed, reasonably, for people simply not able to vote in person due to military service, work abroad, or genuine physical incapacity.
They make a good point that SpaceX needs the booster catch to work to achieve the launch cadence needed to meet the terms of the NASA moon mission contract.
I think that if SpaceX actually had all four Starship pads up and running at Boca Chica and the Cape and could build up the manufacturing cadence to have enough boosters on hand, it is not *impossible* that they could do an Artemis mission with the necessary cadence for all the refueling flights. But obviously they’d be throwing away a lot of boosters and Raptors, and obviously it’s gonna be at least 2, perhaps 3 years before the pads at the Cape (and the rest of the necessary Starship infrastructure) are up and running.
But nailing down booster catches is obviously the preferred way to go, In the long run, the whole architecture really is predicated on it. They can get by with expending the upper stage Starships for a while.
“… Voting by mail really should be terminated. That would solve the ID problem for *that*. …”
Vote by mail has empowered monied interests to absolutely control the vote. Democrats pay operatives to visit voters, one at a time. The ballot is brought to the voter, the operative waits while the ballot is completed, then it is brought to the drop off box.
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-government-and-politics-8eaf001732ac25976f0560a3e49ed500
“… Surveys after the 2020 election found that voters who cast ballots for President Joe Biden were far more likely to report voting by mail than voters for Trump. …”
How does democracy die if Republicans control the Senate and the Supreme Court has a conservative majority?
With an Executive, with veto power and the media behind them, “persuading” Congress (easier to do when “GOP” is not always synonymous with “conservative”) to continue to delegate its authority to the technocrats under said Executive. Including the authority to selectively engage in lawfare against ordinary citizens, discouraging dissent.
The only decision we ordinary folks get to make in Our Democracy™, is in who allegedly represents us. Their is no requirement, while in office, to actually consult us and see whether all that government “help” is hurting us in any way. Those we elect have carte blanche to do practically ANYTHING they can be persuade a majority to pass and the Executive to agree to, in the name of the “common good”.
Which is how we got into the mess we’re in.
They have totally forgotten the concept of unalienable individual rights. Democracy is only there to derive the JUST powers of government to protect those rights, from the “consent of the governed”. Those rights supersede a majority vote.
The NTSB has its own issues with the FAA, so I hear.
Jeff Wright – “The NTSB has its own issues with the FAA, so I hear.”
Very interesting. Any more info? Pointers? Links? I assume it is some sort of bureaucratic turf & power war.
Enough talk. Just do it. Get it done. Just do it. We don’t need the politicians, no matter what they say about how much we need them.
They’re in the way. Time for a boot up their collective ass.
Just do it. Get it done, thank you.