In demanding an investigation by SpaceX into the Starship failure on this week’s test flight, the FAA puffs up its chest and pounds it like a chimpanzee
My heart be still: As reported in numerous propaganda media outlets today, the FAA has announced that it is demanding an investigation by SpaceX into the fuel leaks that caused Starship to tumble and then burn up in an uncontrolled manner as it came down in its designated landing zone in the Indian Ocean. From the FAA’s statement:
The FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation for the Starship Flight 9 mission that launched on May 27 from Starbase, Texas. All Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster debris landed within the designated hazard areas. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property. The mishap investigation is focused only on the loss of the Starship vehicle which did not complete its launch or reentry as planned.
This FAA demand for an investigation is meaningless and not news, because SpaceX doesn’t need the FAA to require it. Does anything think SpaceX wasn’t going to do an investigation without an order from the FAA?
Nor will the FAA’s demand change anything. Once SpaceX completes and submits its investigation, the FAA will approve it immediately. No one at the FAA is qualified to question it. The FAA might participate in that investigation as an outside observer and add some value, but in the end the investigation and subsequent actions are entirely in SpaceX’s hands.
The FAA also admits that even though Starship came back out of orbit in an uncontrolled manner, breaking up over the Indian Ocean, it did so exactly as the mission’s contingency plans intended. No one was hurt. Nothing was damaged on the ground. And all the debris fell within the designated landing zone. From the FAA’s legal perspective, there is nothing to investigate, since its only responsibility is to limit harm to the public. SpaceX did what was requested, most admirably. The FAA admits as much in not requiring a mishap investigation of the Superheavy failure.
That the propaganda press is trying to make a big deal about this is a joke. These press reports are merely more propaganda attempting to pump up the importance of government power while denigrating anything to do with Elon Musk.
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My heart be still: As reported in numerous propaganda media outlets today, the FAA has announced that it is demanding an investigation by SpaceX into the fuel leaks that caused Starship to tumble and then burn up in an uncontrolled manner as it came down in its designated landing zone in the Indian Ocean. From the FAA’s statement:
The FAA is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation for the Starship Flight 9 mission that launched on May 27 from Starbase, Texas. All Starship vehicle and Super Heavy booster debris landed within the designated hazard areas. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property. The mishap investigation is focused only on the loss of the Starship vehicle which did not complete its launch or reentry as planned.
This FAA demand for an investigation is meaningless and not news, because SpaceX doesn’t need the FAA to require it. Does anything think SpaceX wasn’t going to do an investigation without an order from the FAA?
Nor will the FAA’s demand change anything. Once SpaceX completes and submits its investigation, the FAA will approve it immediately. No one at the FAA is qualified to question it. The FAA might participate in that investigation as an outside observer and add some value, but in the end the investigation and subsequent actions are entirely in SpaceX’s hands.
The FAA also admits that even though Starship came back out of orbit in an uncontrolled manner, breaking up over the Indian Ocean, it did so exactly as the mission’s contingency plans intended. No one was hurt. Nothing was damaged on the ground. And all the debris fell within the designated landing zone. From the FAA’s legal perspective, there is nothing to investigate, since its only responsibility is to limit harm to the public. SpaceX did what was requested, most admirably. The FAA admits as much in not requiring a mishap investigation of the Superheavy failure.
That the propaganda press is trying to make a big deal about this is a joke. These press reports are merely more propaganda attempting to pump up the importance of government power while denigrating anything to do with Elon Musk.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
It’s time to take spaceflight out of their jurisdiction.
Does anything think SpaceX wasn’t going to do an investigation without an order from the FAA?
People just don’t get this.
I do not think SpaceX has the option of Starship exploding or losing control while it is so high in the atmosphere. The explosion was described as a RUD – meaning it was not a flight termination explosion. There will be ships and planes beneath the overflying Starship. How soon before the UN figures it can assert some authority to regulate all sub orbital flights? The big, existential problem for Starship is going to be once it is testing Starship in orbit. An orbital explosion, with the resulting increase in space junk, will be the end of the program.
ASFAIK, the FAA has “demanded” SpaceX conduct a mishap investigation after every Starship test flight that suffered some type of failure, which is all of them, and promptly accepted the findings and corrective actions of each report.
Ray Van Dune: While is it true that the FAA has required a mishap investigation after each Starship/Superheavy test launch, it has NOT promptly accepted SpaceX’s findings and corrective actions after each report. During the Biden years, it would spend anywhere from one to three months retyping SpaceX’s report into its own, making believe it was doing something when all it was really doing was slow-walking SpaceX because Biden and the Democrats didn’t like the fact that Elon Musk opposed them politically.
Since the election, the FAA has suddenly found that retyping unnecessary (I am shocked, SHOCKED) and have issued the launch license within days (or less) after SpaceX finished its investigation.
My what a difference an election makes.
Grok says Starship is intended to land in the Indian Ocean. 300 to 600 miles off the coast of Australia. SpaceX must have to get informal or indirect approval from that country for Starship to splash down within its vicinity. Would it be NASA, the space force or the FAA which vouch for SpaceX in getting friendly countries to agree to Starship flying over or coming down near their borders? The point being, the FAA requiring SpaceX to submit detailed reports after each flight and having the authority to deny flight permission might be what is keeping foreign countries on board in terms of allowing splash down in international waters.
Where were they when Boeing was putting humans in a Starliner that hadn’t had a fully successful test flight? Are they even going to insist on another unmanned flight to prove the issues are fully resolved? What happened to Butch and Suni was disgraceful. I can’t even imagine their feelings when they believed they might never return to earth. Has Boeing ever apoligized for sending them up in a capsule that never had a fully successful test? Spending so much more money then SpaceX even receieved to provide a fully functional vehicle plus all the extra years for what?
SpaceX automatically does an in depth investigation when anything goes even slightly wrong because their program is too important to them to allow a problem to replicate across everything they pretty much mass produce. And there’s a reason they call these test flights. A simulator or only testing on earth is unlikely to give them as much information quickly as actually testing where it’s expected to fly. That Version 2 Ship is still having growing pains is not totally unexpected once it only got to space for the first time but would think lessons learned will be applied to Version 3 as applicable. Losing the booster was an acceptable risk to test it’s limits since it already proved reflight and a controlled flip. They’ll be going to a Version 2 soon anyway so weren’t planning on another reuse. Their approved flight plan included the risks and areas on earth they were aiming to come down in, one way or another.
Instead of making demands like they’re dealing with a naughty child, a simple request to include their investigation results before or with their next flight approval request should have been enough. Not like they actually always finish figuring out what SpaceX sends them and closing their file on the mishap before allowing the next flight.
“Grok says Starship is intended to land in the Indian Ocean. 300 to 600 miles off the coast of Australia. SpaceX must have to get informal or indirect approval from that country for Starship to splash down within its vicinity.”
Wrong. It is not even in Australia’s economic zone. International waters. They don’t have to do anything. They did talk to the Australian government about towing soft landed Starships into Port Hedland IIRC but that seems to have gone quiet.