FAA red tape apparently stalling the next Starship/Superheavy orbital test launch
Superheavy being captured by the tower chopsticks at landing.
Click for video.
Back in mid-June, shortly after 4th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket, it appeared based on an FAA statement that the company could proceed with the next test flight as soon as it was ready to fly.
Subsequently, Elon Musk said the company expected to be ready by early August. There were also indications that the company wished to attempt a chopstick landing of Superheavy back at the launch tower at Boca Chica. Such an attempt however would require approval from the FAA, as the flight profile would not be the same as the previous flight.
I and others speculated that SpaceX would forego that chopstick landing in order to fly the fifth test flight quickly, while simultanously requesting permission from the FAA for such a landing on a later test flight. My thinking was that this would allow test flights to proceed with as little delay as possible.
Though it remains unknown whether or not the next test flight will include that chopstick landing attempt, it does appear that FAA red tape is blocking the next flight. In an update from NASASpaceflight.com about the work at Boca Chica posted on August 9, 2023 was a link to a SpaceX tweet the day before that said the following:
Flight 5 Starship and Super Heavy are ready to fly, pending regulatory approval. Additional booster catch testing and Flight 6 vehicle testing is planned while waiting for clearance to fly
This tweet suggests SpaceX wants to attempt that chopstick landing on either this upcoming test flight, or on the next flight. Either way, the FAA seems to be the main hold up, as it has yet not issued a launch license.
If SpaceX is not planning a chopstick landing on flight 5, then the FAA is unnecessarily delaying this test flight for bureaucratic reasons. Since both NASA and SpaceX need Starship/Superheavy operational as quickly as possible for numerous contractual reasons, such a delay is unconscionable. No one at the FAA is qualified to approve this launch. Only SpaceX engineers can do that.
If SpaceX has decided to try a chopstick landing of Superheavy, the situation remains the same. No one at the FAA is qualified to determine if such a landing is doable. It should rely entirely on SpaceX for that determination. If the bureaucrats at the FAA are trying to figure it out on their own, we can expect the delay to be significant as SpaceX attempts to educate them.
Furthermore, SpaceX has indicated it wants to do three more test launches of Starship/Superheavy before the end of the year. If the FAA is going to require weeks of extra review time between each test flight, that schedule will be impossible to meet.
All in all, private enterprise in the guise of SpaceX appears ready and willing to do what private enterprise and freedom has always done in the United States, make things happen quickly and with success. And as we have learned in the past half century with the advent of heavy government regulation, the administrative state is ready and willing to slow things down — squelching that freedom — so either nothing gets done, or it gets done at much greater cost to everyone.
We shall see how things play out in the coming weeks.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
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Superheavy being captured by the tower chopsticks at landing.
Click for video.
Back in mid-June, shortly after 4th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket, it appeared based on an FAA statement that the company could proceed with the next test flight as soon as it was ready to fly.
Subsequently, Elon Musk said the company expected to be ready by early August. There were also indications that the company wished to attempt a chopstick landing of Superheavy back at the launch tower at Boca Chica. Such an attempt however would require approval from the FAA, as the flight profile would not be the same as the previous flight.
I and others speculated that SpaceX would forego that chopstick landing in order to fly the fifth test flight quickly, while simultanously requesting permission from the FAA for such a landing on a later test flight. My thinking was that this would allow test flights to proceed with as little delay as possible.
Though it remains unknown whether or not the next test flight will include that chopstick landing attempt, it does appear that FAA red tape is blocking the next flight. In an update from NASASpaceflight.com about the work at Boca Chica posted on August 9, 2023 was a link to a SpaceX tweet the day before that said the following:
Flight 5 Starship and Super Heavy are ready to fly, pending regulatory approval. Additional booster catch testing and Flight 6 vehicle testing is planned while waiting for clearance to fly
This tweet suggests SpaceX wants to attempt that chopstick landing on either this upcoming test flight, or on the next flight. Either way, the FAA seems to be the main hold up, as it has yet not issued a launch license.
If SpaceX is not planning a chopstick landing on flight 5, then the FAA is unnecessarily delaying this test flight for bureaucratic reasons. Since both NASA and SpaceX need Starship/Superheavy operational as quickly as possible for numerous contractual reasons, such a delay is unconscionable. No one at the FAA is qualified to approve this launch. Only SpaceX engineers can do that.
If SpaceX has decided to try a chopstick landing of Superheavy, the situation remains the same. No one at the FAA is qualified to determine if such a landing is doable. It should rely entirely on SpaceX for that determination. If the bureaucrats at the FAA are trying to figure it out on their own, we can expect the delay to be significant as SpaceX attempts to educate them.
Furthermore, SpaceX has indicated it wants to do three more test launches of Starship/Superheavy before the end of the year. If the FAA is going to require weeks of extra review time between each test flight, that schedule will be impossible to meet.
All in all, private enterprise in the guise of SpaceX appears ready and willing to do what private enterprise and freedom has always done in the United States, make things happen quickly and with success. And as we have learned in the past half century with the advent of heavy government regulation, the administrative state is ready and willing to slow things down — squelching that freedom — so either nothing gets done, or it gets done at much greater cost to everyone.
We shall see how things play out in the coming weeks.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I once read an interview with an Indian immigrant, whose primary impression of America, was, ‘Everything, just works.’ That was some time ago. Now, advanced bureiosclerosis.
Musk needs to explain how Starship is a re-usable upper stage that can lessen space debris.
Space fans know this already—but the point needs driving home.
Jeff Wright:
Suggest GIF overlaying recent Long March 6A launch with Superheavy/Starship on same mission profile.
One might almost feel sorry for The Powers That Be behind the Biden Administration. On the one hand, if they want to have a successful national space program, they must find a way to work with SpaceX and Elon Musk. On the other hand, the success of SpaceX — and Mr. Musk in particular — are such stunning rebukes to their collectivist ideology and everything that it stands for that they *cannot* wish to see them succeed. What’s a poor, America-hating Jacobin Democrat to do?
Well, here is one example, a new hit piece on Musk appearing in Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elon-musk-twitter-misinformation-timeline-1235076786/
Once again, Herr Goebbels would be *very* proud.
PS — Note, once again, the technique. In der große Lüge, everything is inverted, facts are ignored, and good and evil are transposed. In this case, the intended take away is that Twitter / X is the purveyor of “disinformation,” and nothing that appears on this platform can be trusted. Just ask Tulsi Gabbard.
https://www.racket.news/p/american-stasi-tulsi-gabbard-confirms?publication_id=1042&post_id=147403238&isFreemail=true&r=288zcz&triedRedirect=truehttps://www.racket.news/p/american-stasi-tulsi-gabbard-confirms?publication_id=1042&post_id=147403238&isFreemail=true&r=288zcz&triedRedirect=true
At the bottom of all of this, we are in a war to determine which “reality” Americans want to live / will tolerate living in, and whether such things as truth, logical consistency, and morality still have any currency in today’s postmodern age.
The FAA sub commander who is responsible for signing off on Starship launches has himself in a very profitable position. His friends and colleagues are likely doing very well by going along and getting along in the space industry and beyond. By following the wishes of democrats in Washington his team loses the money and influence they have now. My bet is the FAA will grant approval soon.
Pretty ballsy to consider landing on the chopsticks already. If they mess that up there could be significant damage to launch facilities, not to mention the tower. Hope they’ve got good aim, that tank farm looks pretty explody.
The one thing we might consider is that Elon has bought himself at least some protection by making his company so utterly invaluable to both the Defense Department and NASA. Killing or slow-walking Starship throws a major spanner in their future plans, too.
So there’s at least the chance of Elon having some government allies jumping in the scrum on his company’s behalf, when lawfare maneuvers are attempted at other precincts of the managerial state.
So FAA bureaucrats, who are probably DIE hires, are trying to make people think that they are rocket scientists.