ReportWire

Tag: rocket launches

  • SpaceX’s Next-Gen Starship Booster Explodes During Test

    [ad_1]

    SpaceX rolled out an upgraded version of its megarocket for pre-launch testing, but images of the next-generation booster show signs of damage ahead of Starship’s first orbital flight early next year.

    On Thursday, SpaceX began the initial round of pre-launch testing of Booster 18, the first Super Heavy for Starship’s version 3 that’s set to debut in 2026. Footage obtained of the company’s Massey test site in Texas showed the booster exploding at its outpost, and an image posted later on X also revealed severe damage to the rocket’s lower half where the liquid oxygen propellant is stored.

    “The first operations will test the booster’s redesigned propellant systems and its structural strength,” SpaceX wrote on X. The company, however, didn’t comment on the damage sustained by the rocket during its testing.

    Bigger is better?

    Last month, Starship version 2 launched for the last time, ending a two-year run on a high note with a successful test flight. The rocket’s second iteration launched on a suborbital trajectory, but SpaceX is now turning its attention toward the third, larger version of Starship in preparation for the first orbital flight.

    The next-generation Starship features a larger vehicle that’s capable of carrying more propellant. The rocket will also use a more powerful and efficient version of its engines, the third-generation Raptor engines. Although Starship’s last two test flights were a major success, they did follow a string of failed launches earlier this year that plagued the rocket’s path to operation. As such, there is a lot riding on the success of the latest Starship prototype. The new version of the rocket is meant to have several upgrades and design fixes to avoid version 2’s explosive streak.

    Earlier in September, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk did admit that because “pretty much everything changes on the rocket with version 3,” there will be a learning curve with the new prototype. The upgraded Starship “might have some initial teething pains because it’s such a radical redesign,” he said during an interview.

    It’s not clear whether the apparent explosion of Booster 18 was a mishap or intentional, as SpaceX may have been pushing the rocket to the breaking point—a deliberate failure—to see how it fares under extreme conditions. Either way, SpaceX is on a tight deadline to deliver a Starship that can land astronauts on the Moon in 2027 as part of NASA’s Artemis 3 mission. Due to delays in development, NASA’s acting head, Sean Duffy, recently revealed that the agency could reopen the Artemis 3 contract to SpaceX’s competitors.

    Musk has also stated that he would like to send an uncrewed Starship to Mars during an upcoming launch window next year. That all depends on the next-generation Starship’s ability to reach orbit by next year and the company’s success in learning how to fly a bigger rocket on a new trajectory.

    [ad_2]

    Passant Rabie

    Source link

  • This Off-The-Beaten-Path Japanese Island Is A Coastal Gem Offering Beaches, Yoga, And Rocket Launches

    [ad_1]

    Just off the southern coast of Kyushu lies Tanegashima, an island where tropical beaches, wellness retreats, and rocket launches coexist. Part of Kagoshima Prefecture, it’s the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands. Unlike its neighboring secluded Japanese island, Yakushima, Tanegashima is relatively flat with gentle slopes that lead to wide stretches of beach and fields of sugarcane. Its subtropical climate supports lush vegetation, including banyan and palm trees. With clear waters lapping at the shore and a scenic landscape, Tanegashima offers a place to swim, practice yoga, and even watch rockets launch into orbit from the island’s space center.

    Long before it became known for rocket launches, Tanegashima played a key role in Japan’s first encounter with Europeans. In 1543, a Portuguese ship accidentally landed on the island after veering off course. With them came advanced firearms, a technology previously unknown in Japan. Tanegashima’s local lord recognized their value and purchased several weapons. He later commissioned local swordsmiths to reproduce both the guns and their gunpowder. This encounter sparked a major shift in Japanese warfare. Centuries later, in 1969, Tanegashima underwent another transformation when the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan’s largest rocket launch facility, was developed.

    Read more: 25 Gorgeous Islands For Vacationing That Won’t Break The Bank

    View rocket launches from the Tanegashima Space Center

    Satellite towers between hills and by the beach in Tanegashima – Norimoto/Getty Images

    There were several practical reasons why Tanegashima was chosen as the site for Japan’s space center. Its location closer to the equator lets rockets take advantage of Earth’s rotation and makes launches more efficient. The island’s remoteness also minimizes disruption to Japan’s fishing zones. Additionally, Tanegashima had the necessary infrastructure to support space operations. This included available land, along with access to communication systems, water, electricity, and public transportation.

    Today, the Tanegashima Space Center covers nearly 104 million square feet and serves as Japan’s primary launch site for orbital missions. The facility includes areas for assembling satellites, inspecting parts, and launching rockets. Visitors can watch live launches from the Takesaki Observation Stand, which offers wide views of the coastline. The complex also features a free Space Museum with hands-on exhibits and real rocket components that visitors can touch. Within the museum, the Liftoff Theatre lets guests experience a simulated rocket launch that consists of sound and smoke effects.

    Explore Tanegashima’s coastal beauty and yoga destinations

    Rocks over blue waters and along a sandy beach in Tanegashima

    Rocks over blue waters and along a sandy beach in Tanegashima – norinori303/Shutterstock

    Along with exploring the space center, Tanegashima’s coastline is one of the main attractions of the island. Its beaches are known for white sand and calm water, which makes them ideal for a range of activities. On the island’s northern tip, Urada Beach offers swimming and snorkeling in clear waters where colorful tropical fish are usually visible. Toward the southern coast, near the space center, Takezaki Beach is a popular surfing spot among sandstone cliffs. About 18 minutes away by car, Hamada Beach is home to the Chikura no Iwaya cave. Visitors can enter the sea cave during low tide and take in views of the ocean.

    Beyond outdoor recreation, Tanegashima is a destination for wellness travelers. In 2020, Nishinoomote City was certified as a “Sacred Place of Yoga.” The designation was given because of its natural landscapes, which are believed to support physical and mental well-being. Yoga sessions are usually held on beaches or coastal overlooks, where participants can meditate by the sea.

    Travelers can reach Tanegashima by flying into Tanegashima Airport from either Osaka, nicknamed “Japan’s Kitchen,” or Kagoshima, often called the “Naples Of Japan.” Alternatively, ferries leave regularly from Kagoshima Port. Travel times vary from 45 minutes to three and a half hours, depending on the type of vessel. Once on the island, rental cars are the most convenient way to get around. To see some of Tanegashima’s scenic highlights, the Tanegashima Route offers a recommended driving course that passes beaches, coastal roads, and the island’s space center.

    Ready to discover more hidden gems and expert travel tips? Subscribe to our free newsletter and add us as a preferred search source for access to the world’s best-kept travel secrets.

    Read the original article on Islands.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Starship V3: The World’s Largest Rocket Is About to Get Even Bigger

    [ad_1]

    This past Monday, October 13, Starship Version 2 launched for the last time, ending its nearly two-year run on a high note. The megarocket’s 11th suborbital test flight marked the final launch of this iteration of Starship, making way for an upgraded version that’s larger and equipped with more efficient Raptor engines.

    Starship’s Version 3 is set to debut in 2026, marking the beginning of SpaceX’s orbital tests of its launch vehicle. This version of Starship will carry payloads to orbit and fly missions to the Moon and Mars. The upgraded vehicle will be about 5 feet taller (1.5 meters), capable of carrying more propellant, and equipped with new docking adapters for in-orbit fuel transfer.

    Starships are meant to fly

    Starship’s latest flight was another big success. SpaceX carried out several in-flight demonstrations to prepare for the launch of the rocket’s upgraded version. The second-generation prototype flew on a suborbital trajectory, similar to its previous missions, and deployed eight Starlink simulators.

    Starship’s last two flights were successful, but they followed a string of mission failures that plagued the rocket’s first three launches of the year. Although Version 2 ended on a high, it did have a rather turbulent run. Nonetheless, the company is now turning its attention toward the upgraded version of its rocket.

    “Focus now turns to the next generation of Starship and Super Heavy, with multiple vehicles currently in active build and preparing for tests,” SpaceX wrote in a statement. “This next iteration will be used for the first Starship orbital flights, operational payload missions, propellant transfer, and more as we iterate to a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle with service to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

    The next-generation upgrade to the current prototype features a larger vehicle that’s capable of carrying more propellant. The rocket will also use a more powerful and efficient version of its engines, the third-generation Raptor engines.

    “We’re also getting energy storage upgrades, tons of avionics changes—a lot of things that will enable longer-duration missions,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said during Starship’s 11th test flight webcast.

    In order to prepare the rocket for missions beyond low Earth orbit, the company also needs to equip Starship with a ship-to-ship propellant transfer system to refuel the vehicle in space.

    “One notable thing you’ll start seeing on the outside are these new docking adapters, which we’ll use when we bring two Starships together for propellant transfer,” Huot said. “That’s a core capability of Starship that we’re going to demonstrate next year.”

    As with any new vehicle prototype, there will be a learning curve with the next-generation Starship. During an interview in September, SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk revealed that “pretty much everything changes on the rocket with version 3.” The upgraded Starship “might have some initial teething pains because it’s such a radical redesign,” he added.

    Considering the rocket’s new developments, it may take a while for Starship Version 3 to perfect those orbital flights. Musk had previously stated that he would like to send an uncrewed Starship to Mars during an upcoming launch window next year, but it’s not clear whether the rocket will be ready to travel to a new world by then.

    [ad_2]

    Passant Rabie

    Source link

  • Watch Live: SpaceX Launches Starship on its Most Ambitious Test Flight Yet

    [ad_1]

    SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is back on the launch pad at Boca Chica, prepared and ready for its final flight test of the year. Flight 11, scheduled to lift off on Monday evening at the earliest, will also be the final test flight for this iteration of Starship, Version 2—if everything goes to plan.

    The launch window will open at 7:15 p.m. Eastern on Monday, October 13, according to SpaceX. A livestream of the event will begin approximately 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch at SpaceX.com or the company’s account on X. You can also tune in through any of the third-party webcasts below.

     

    A transitional moment for SpaceX

    Last week, SpaceX shared photos of Starship’s Super Heavy booster set up on its pad at Starbase, the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. The rocket’s upper stage, called Starship or “Ship” for short, is stacked on top of the booster ahead of its flight.

    Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Altogether, it stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall. But SpaceX is going bigger: The next iteration of Starship—Version 3—will be even larger and capable of carrying 100 tons (363 metric tons) to orbit, according to CEO Elon Musk. Its first launch is expected sometime in early 2026.

    But before SpaceX can roll out Version 3, the company needs this last test of Version 2 to go smoothly. It’s last test, Flight 10, which lifted off from Starbase in August, went off without a hitch. But that launch followed a string of explosive failures that had put Starship off-track.

    For this test, Starship will follow a very similar flight plan to its last launch, just with a few tweaks to further stress-test the rocket’s heat shield and demonstrate maneuvers that are designed to mimic how its upper stages will behave when it is returning to its launch site—Starhsip, after all, is meant to be fully reusable.

    A similar but different flight plan

    In the eleventh test flight, Starship’s Super Heavy Booster is supposed to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico while, its upper stage progresses along a suborbital arc, then reenters the atmosphere for a water landing in the Indian Ocean, according to SpaceX.

    The test will attempt several in-space objectives, including a deployment of eight dummy Starlink satellites and a relight of one of its Raptor engines. SpaceX has again removed several ceramic tiles from the heat shield to stress-test the rocket’s thermal protection system.

    Unlike flight 10, however, this time the spacecraft will perform a “dynamic banking maneuver” during the final phase of the rocket’s reentry, designed to mimic the path it will take on future flights returning to Starbase.

    The booster will also demonstrate a “unique landing burn engine configuration planned to be used on the next generation of Super Heavy,” according to SpaceX. The booster will ignite 13 of its 33 engines to start the burn, transition to five engines to fine-tune its trajectory, then downshift to three center engines for the final stage of the burn.

    The booster selected for this launch is flight-proven, having already flown on flight 8 in March. Twenty-four of the booster’s Raptor engines are also flight-proven. This will be the second reuse of a Super Heavy booster, a critical test of SpaceX’s rapid reusability strategy.

    It’s been a turbulent year for the Starship program. After a very shaky start to the rocket’s 2025 launch schedule, SpaceX is now under pressure to reach critical development milestones ahead of its next iteration. Monday’s launch is one you won’t want to miss.

    [ad_2]

    Ellyn Lapointe

    Source link

  • Scientists Prove That Human Gut Bacteria Can Survive a Trip to Space Without Us

    [ad_1]

    Space travel is not for the weak. Astronauts endure motion sickness, disorientation, cardiovascular stress—and that’s before they even reach orbit. Luckily, the bacteria that lives inside us is far more resilient. A new study shows that a gut bacteria essential for human health can survive the stress of being launched into space aboard a rocket, the microgravity environment, and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

    A group of scientists in Australia launched spores of Bacillus subtilis, a gram-positive bacteria that lives in our intestinal tracts, to the edge of space to see how the microbes fared. Upon examination after the bacteria had returned to Earth, the scientists found the microbes had experienced no change in their ability to grow and that their structure remained intact.

    The findings are detailed in a study published Monday in npj Microgravity. The work indicates that the bacteria would likely work as needed inside the guts of any humans on their way to Mars—crucial information for astronaut health. But it also suggests that human-led contamination of Mars with Earthly bacteria may be inevitable.

    Space-faring bacteria

    Previous experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) have shown that certain types of bacteria can survive in space. There hasn’t been much research done, however, on the effects of a rocket launch and reentry on the survival rates of human gut bacteria.

    In order to put the bacteria to the test, the researchers packed spores on board a sounding rocket and launched it to an altitude of around 160 miles (260 kilometers) above the surface of Earth. During the second stage burn, the rocket experienced a maximum acceleration of 13 G (or 13 times the force of Earth’s gravity).

    Once it reached its desired altitude, the researchers initiated a brief period of weightlessness that lasted for around six minutes as the main engine shut off. After that, the rocket began its descent to Earth, decelerating at forces up to 30 G while spinning at a rate of 220 times per second.

    After the grueling journey, the researchers examined the bacteria spores to see how they fared during the rocket launch and reentry. Surprisingly, the bacteria showed no change to their structure, nor did the extreme forces affect its ability to grow.

    “Our research showed an important type of bacteria for our health can withstand rapid gravity changes, acceleration and deacceleration,” Elena Ivanova, a professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “It’s broadened our understanding on the effects of long-term spaceflight on microorganisms that live in our bodies and keep us healthy. This means we can design better life support systems for astronauts to keep them healthy during long missions.”

    The idea of bacteria surviving and thriving on their way to the Red Planet, however, isn’t always met with enthusiasm. The findings follow a separate study published last year which warned bacteria not only have the potential to survive a trip to Mars, but also feel right at home in the Martian soil. As space agencies plan for human missions to Mars, there is growing concern that those missions could contaminate the Martian environment with out Earthly microbes. That could lead to mistaken discoveries of life on the planet, but it could also pose an immediate risk to the astronauts themselves—or indeed, any life that might be on Mars in the first place.

    [ad_2]

    Passant Rabie

    Source link

  • SpaceX FAA Starship Launch Lawsuit Dismissed

    [ad_1]

    A federal judge has concluded this week that the Federal Aviation Administration did its job in 2022 when regulators signed off on allowing SpaceX to conduct test launches of the world’s largest rocket on the rim of the South Texas Coast at a site surrounded by a delicate ecosystem that hosts endangered species, including the piping plovers, ocelots and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles.

    Thus, in April 2023 when the 394-foot-tall rocket, comprised of the Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster slated to tote humans to Mars someday, subsequently exploded on the SpaceX launchpad just outside of Boca Chica Beach, everything played out as one would expect, right?

    Well, it depends on what you were expecting.

    The explosion littered Boca Chica State Park and Boca Chica Wildlife Refuge with rocket debris, set fire to about four acres of surrounding state park land and scattered chunks of the pulverized concrete launchpad across six miles of terrain, fallout that conservationists contend the FAA should have done more to prevent.

    Thus, in May 2023 a clutch of environmental groups, including the American Bird Conservancy, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe of Texas filed a lawsuit in Washington D.C. accusing the FAA of having failed to conduct a full enough of review of the likely environmental impacts of the project when the agency signed off on the launch.

    The lawsuit contended that the FAA should have done a full environmental impact statement of its own instead of allowing SpaceX to file a Programmatic Environmental Assessment of its own making.

    The commercial space company’s assessment did allow that their program’s proposed Starship launch plan, which would allow up to 20 launches over five years and an expansion of the South Texas site, would likely come with a sizable environmental impact. However, SpaceX offered mitigation measures such as consulting with experts after an “anomaly,” i.e. a rocket explosion in FAA parlance, and collecting the debris, but nothing that aimed at preventing the anomalies from happening or addressing the environmental damages through “restoration and enhancement of habitat effected by the noise, heat and light from rocket launches,” according to the lawsuit.

    The plaintiffs claimed all of this was in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act and sought a court order to pause the launches until the FAA had conducted its own environmental impact statement on the launch program, according to the lawsuit.

    Despite the fire and the rubble and the destruction of at least one nest of bobwhite quail eggs and some blue land crabs, in his ruling U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that the FAA had done a fairly okay job, actually.

    “Most of the conclusions were well-reasoned and supported by the record,” he stated, regarding the SpaceX-manufactured environmental plan for the launch program. Nichols didn’t go so far as to claim it was perfect though, acknowledging that “parts of its analysis left something to be desired.”

    But, he concluded, this one really wasn’t up to him.

    Citing a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling indicating that courts aren’t supposed to be sticking their paws into the works of federal agencies so long as the agencies are doing what they’re supposed to do “within a broad zone of reasonableness,” Nichols found that the FAA was more or less on target.

    The “zone of reasonableness” has also been rendered remarkably broad in the past month when it comes to environmental assessment requirements for the FAA and the Department of Transportation, which oversees the agency.

    In August, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that loosened environmental rules for commercial space companies, including a requirement to “eliminate or expedite the Department of Transportation’s environmental reviews.” In other words, FAA now has a target so wide you’d have to be blind not to hit it, as far as environmental regulations go.

    Meanwhile, we’re about to see the last of Starship as we know it.

    In the wake of this judicial win, on Wednesday SpaceX posted photos of Starship’s upper stage perched on its South Texas launchpad (located in the community that incorporated itself as Starbase back in May) ahead of its upcoming launch.

    SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said this will be the last test flight of this iteration, dubbed Version 2, of the 394-foot-tall spacecraft.

    Why? Well, because he’s going to roll out the world’s new largest rocket, the 408-foot-tall spacecraft comprised of Starship and Super Heavy, Version 3.

    And we’re likely to see a lot of it.

    In May, FAA regulators signed off on a proposal allowing SpaceX to go from five South Texas launches annually to 25 per year.

    [ad_2]

    Dianna Wray

    Source link

  • Nudists and Surfers Protest SpaceX’s Plans to Launch Starship From Florida

    [ad_1]

    SpaceX isn’t very popular among beachgoers in Florida at the moment. The rocket company applied for a permit to launch its Starship rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which threatens to restrict beach access for surfers and casual nudists.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently hosted a series of public meetings where residents of the area got to weigh in on its upcoming decision to allow Starship to lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. During the meeting, members of the American Association for Nude Recreation expressed dismay at the prospect of shutting down the Playalinda beach, located a few miles away from the launch center, Space.com reported.

    Access to beach denied

    SpaceX is aiming to conduct up to 44 launches per year from Kennedy Space Center, seeking approval from the FAA and the Space Force to carry out its Starship operations from Florida’s Space Coast. The FAA is conducting a comprehensive environmental review and seeking public input from residents of the area, who have expressed concern about the noise resulting from the launches, as well as road and beach closures.

    In its initial assessment, the FAA estimated that Starship’s launch activity in Florida could lead to closing down Playalinda Beach more than 60 times a year. Playalinda is one of a handful of public beaches in Florida and is known as a popular surfing spot, as well as having a clothing-optional section around Boardwalk 13 where public nudity is legal.

    During the public meeting, Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation, warned that restricting access to Playalinda Beach would force nudists to travel to nearby clothing-optional beaches and overcrowd them and possibly affect regular (clothed) beachgoers, according to Space.com.

    At another public meeting, it was the community of local surfers who were up in arms about Starship’s proposed activities in Florida, according to Beach Grit. Located within Canaveral National Seashore, the underdeveloped Playalinda Beach offers ideal conditions for surfing. If Starship were to close down access to the beach, it would interfere with when locals could catch the next wave, the surfers argued.

    The local community has even put together an online petition to try and stop SpaceX from taking hold of Playalinda Beach.

    [ad_2]

    Passant Rabie

    Source link

  • Watch Live as SpaceX Tries to Prove Starship Isn’t a Total Flop With Flight 10

    [ad_1]

    SpaceX is gearing up for the tenth test flight of its megarocket following a streak of failures that have cast doubt on Starship’s ability to fly to Mars in 2026.

    Starship is slated for lift-off on Sunday, August 24, during a launch window that opens at 7:30 p.m. ET. SpaceX recently wrapped up investigations into the rocket’s previous test flight, which took place on May 27 and ended with the vehicle breaking apart during reentry. This was the third Starship flight of 2025 and the latest in a series of failures. For flight 10, SpaceX has integrated hardware and operational changes to its rocket in an effort to increase its reliability, according to the company.

    Starship’s test flight will be broadcast live on SpaceX’s website, as well as the company’s X account. You can also tune in through the live feed below.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr-P3Gmrqtk

    Sunday’s test flight will attempt similar mission objectives that went unfulfilled during previous flights due to various anomalies. For the fourth time in a row, SpaceX will attempt a payload deployment test. For this test, the rocket will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, each similar in size and weight to the company’s next-generation satellites. Rather than remaining in orbit, these Starlinks are designed to follow a suborbital trajectory and are expected to burn up during reentry.

    During the upcoming test flight, SpaceX will not attempt to catch the rocket’s Super Heavy booster at the launch mount. Instead, the booster will head on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of Mexico to test its landing burn. During the descent, one of the booster’s three engines will shut down to test the ability of a backup engine to take over. The booster will then use two center engines for the final landing burn, hovering briefly above the ocean before dropping into the Gulf of Mexico.

    For Starship’s upper stage, SpaceX has removed several tiles from its heat shield to “stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry,” the company wrote. The tiles were removed from vulnerable areas and hot spots that were observed during Starship’s sixth flight test.

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX the green light for Starship’s upcoming flight after concluding the investigation into Flight 9. The investigation traced the mishap from the previous flight to structural issues that resulted in “a mixing of methane and liquid oxygen and subsequent ignition,” SpaceX wrote in a statement. To avoid similar issues during upcoming flights, SpaceX said it would lower the booster’s descent angle to reduce aerodynamic forces and prevent another failure.

    The company also addressed the explosion that took place on June 18 at SpaceX’s Massey facility near Starbase. The explosion annihilated the Starship prototype that was supposed to fly on Flight 10. SpaceX traced the anomaly to damage to a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV), which stores nitrogen in Starship’s payload bay. “To address the issue, COPVs on upcoming flights will operate at a reduced pressure with additional inspections and proof tests added prior to loading reactive propellants onto a vehicle,” the company wrote.

    Starship has had a rough run since the beginning of the year. The rocket’s seventh test flight in January ended with Starship’s upper stage exploding roughly eight-and-a-half minutes after launch. Starship’s upper stage met a similar fate during its eighth test flight in March when six of its nine Raptor engines died during the ascent burn. During Starship’s most recent test flight in May, the rocket also suffered a slew of failures. Although the vehicle reached its planned velocity, a propellant leak led to loss of control, and it broke apart during reentry after failing to achieve its mission objectives.

    SpaceX said it has made several changes to its rocket to avoid yet another failure during flight test number 10, hoping that Starship finally breaks its long losing streak.

    [ad_2]

    Passant Rabie

    Source link

  • Report: FAA should improve investigation process after a rocket launch goes awry | TechCrunch

    Report: FAA should improve investigation process after a rocket launch goes awry | TechCrunch

    [ad_1]

    The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has let launch providers conduct their own investigations in nearly every instance that a launch mishap has occurred since the start of the century — a practice that needs closer scrutiny, a federal watchdog said in a new report.

    The report, published Thursday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), takes a close look at the investigations into launch mishaps, the industry term for when a launch ends in an explosion or other failure. Mishap investigations are a normal course of action and are generally under the aegis of the FAA — but this report reveals that the practice is basically entirely operator-led, with the FAA having inadequate resources for in-house investigations.

    Of the 49 mishaps that occurred between 2000 and 2023, and for which FAA was the lead investigative authority, all were led by the launch operator, the report found. The one exception was an investigation into a fatal accident involving SpaceShipTwo in October 2014, for which the National Transportation Safety Board was the lead authority.

    The FAA lets the launch company lead its own investigations for a number of reasons, officials told GAO. A close understanding of vehicle design and the underlying technology is necessary when undertaking a root cause investigation into a failure, and the operators know their vehicle best. FAA officials also estimated that in-house investigations would take 10-20 times longer than those led by the operator.

    The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the FAA should develop criteria for determining when a mishap investigation is led by its office or the launch provider, the report said. It further found that the FAA has not evaluated the effectiveness of its “operator-reliant” mishap investigation process.

    “FAA officials told us they make their decisions to authorize operator-led investigations depending on the level of investigation required, which is largely based on severity of the mishap or its consequences and may also take into consideration the level of public interest,” the report said. “However, in practice, FAA authorized the operator involved to lead the investigation of its mishap for all 49 mishaps for which FAA had lead investigative authority.”

    Even when investigations are led by the launch company, the FAA still exercises some degree of oversight and involvement in the process. But some stakeholders questioned whether the launch companies “can be impartial or effective investigators of their own mishaps.”

    Launch providers told the GAO that they take steps to maintain independence of their internal investigations, and others said that market incentives and insurance requirements can also create positive incentives for a rigorous, credible investigation process.

    Regardless, GAO found that the FAA did not maintain criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of operator-led investigations, and has no formal channels for operators to share their findings with the wider industry.

    “Without a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of its operator-led mishap investigation process, FAA cannot be assured that its safety oversight is best achieving agency objectives in an area of critical importance,” GAO said.

    [ad_2]

    Aria Alamalhodaei

    Source link