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The nearly 400-foot-tall Starship rocket, the largest ever built, is standing on its launch pad in Texas for the upcoming test flight, which could happen before the end of this month, pending FAA approval.
The booster will attempt to descend to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, testing maneuvers for future flights to recover and reuse the rocket.
Multiple Raptor engines on the rocket’s Super Heavy booster failed, and the vehicle lost its steering, causing it to twist out of control in the upper atmosphere.
The FAA’s statement Friday confirms that federal regulators have completed their review of SpaceX’s mishap investigation report, which cites multiple root causes that led to the April 20 test flight ending a few minutes after liftoff.
The mishap investigation report itself contains SpaceX proprietary data and information governed by US export control laws and is not available for public release, according to the FAA.
SpaceX said in a statement Friday that lessons learned from the April 20 launch are “directly contributing to several upgrades being made to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future Starship flights.”
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We’ll get to see the full list at some point, right?
Going off this snippet:
Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices," the FAA said.
I’m curious how many of the changes were already works in progress but not quite ready for the first flight (like the showerhead).