fiery

SECO Stage Separation Test Sparks FAA Investigation of Second Starship Burn Trial

Starship Stacked Oft 3
The Federal Aviation Administration has concluded its review of SpaceX’s investigation of the second Starship launch in November, with the regulator saying Monday that it accepted the “root causes and 17 corrective actions” identified by the company. While this means the investigation is now closed, SpaceX must implement all the corrective actions and apply for a modified launch license before it can fly Starship again. When any rocket launch encounters catastrophic issues during flight, the FAA opens what’s known as a “mishap investigation” — that’s what’s happened here. After the first test, the FAA directed SpaceX to complete 63 corrective actions. “More Starships are ready to fly, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible.