SpaceX cleared to fly Starship again after May booster failure

The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared SpaceX to fly Starship prototypes again after the company identified the probable cause of the Super Heavy booster failure during a May flight. SpaceX said the next Starship flight could happen as soon as Thursday, July 16. The flight would be the second-ever launch of the third version, or V3, of Starship.

The clearance matters because it restarts a high-profile test campaign built around SpaceX’s “fly, fail, fix” development model. It also marks the first Starship test flight for SpaceX as a public company, according to the TechCrunch report.

SpaceX’s May 22 V3 Starship test reached several objectives: the Super Heavy booster lifted the 407-foot rocket into space, the upper stage separated, and Starship deployed 20 satellite simulators along with two modified Starlinks. But the booster was supposed to perform a simulated landing in the Gulf of Mexico, and its engines did not properly re-ignite.

SpaceX said slight differences in engine startup caused the booster to turn 90 degrees in the wrong direction. The FAA said the most probable root causes were heat effects on propulsion system components during ascent and erroneous engine alarm system settings.

SpaceX said it modified the engine startup sequence so the booster can more reliably flip in the desired direction. The company also said the booster has been modified to improve re-light reliability. SpaceX reported changes to Starship’s engine alarm and abort systems intended to reduce the chance of a similar failure.

The upper stage also lost one of the three Raptor engines meant for use in the vacuum of space during the May flight. SpaceX said it has made several hardware and operational modifications to prevent that issue from happening again.

The upcoming test is expected to carry the first third-generation Starlink satellites to space. SpaceX is planning to deploy 20 of the new satellites, which are designed to connect with the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers and burn up in the atmosphere roughly 20 minutes after deployment.

Six of the satellites will carry cameras to photograph Starship’s exterior. The V3 versions of both Starship and Starlink are central to SpaceX’s future plans because Starlink was the company’s only profitable business segment ahead of its IPO, while Starship is needed for SpaceX’s reusable-rocket ambitions.