SpaceX Has Completed the FAA Items Needed for a New Starship Launch

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Elon Musk tweeted out his congratulatins to SpaceX for completing and documented the 57 items required by the FAA for Flight 2 of Starship. He said taht 6 of the 63 items refer to later flights.

17 thoughts on “SpaceX Has Completed the FAA Items Needed for a New Starship Launch”

  1. Network design problem indicates not enough redundancy, which is a bit disturbing.

    The igniter seal is also concerning as that is an acoustic igniter I believe, which suggests it can’t handle the noise of a Raptor.

  2. Some food for thought, The FAA is not trying to get in the way of SpaceX, nor do they want to see them fail. If anything I’d bet the high-ups in US gov have had a good chat to the FAA to ensure SpaceX progress as fast as possible. The last thing the US wants is other nations getting ahead with these kinds of technologies and capable of rapidly launching huge payloads to the moon and beyond.

  3. I think you guys need to watch the latest NSF video on this topic because there is one further step that SpaceX has to do before the FAA approves a launch license. They can’t just use the first application because there are significant changes to the system (approx 1,000) and flight profile.

    • Space x would not be where it is now without billions of dollars from NASA contracts and a big help in previous work NASA has done

      • NASA might have spent billions at Walmart as well. However, a business that delivers more for what you spend is a better choice. It is not NASA spending it, it is the tax payer. The US tax payer has spent via NASA $30 billion + on Constellation and SLS programs. The result was two test launches that launched no payload after 30+ years of effort.

        NASA has gotten over one hundred successful launches from SpaceX including many of manned launches to the Space Station. Those launches were more affordable.

        NASA paid SpaceX less for the manned Dragon program than it paid Boeing for the Starliner program. The Boeing Starliner is still not flying manned missions.

        You cannot just look at what was spent, you have to look at what value was delivered and whether those were good purchases and which companies is delivering value.

        I could sell you box A for $30 billion or box B for $100 billion. You would think, well I should pick box A. But box A has rockets that cannot actually launch payload or people for 30 years. While Box B has 200 successful launches to orbit and 3000 tons launched to orbit and the ability to sustain manned presence on the $200 billion space station.

  4. I can’t wait for the next Starship launch. SpaceX really has their act together and everything they do is exciting. SpaceX is about innovation and building on experience. It makes you wonder why it takes NASA years to design, build and launch these massive rockets when their SLS is based on technology that is a half century old ?

    • Because they don’t have a leader with the sense of urgency and enough authority to move the project forward, relying instead on calcified bureaucracies that are there just to have a job, not to serve a greater purpose.

      Most great innovations come from the will of a visionary.

      Despite the common belief, that also happened in the public sector, when there were such people, but nowadays they are rare.

      • Elon is not a visionary? To go toe to toe with these bureaucrats is in and of itself commendable and I can’t wait for space x to blow them all away

    • Because NASA is not willing to see SLS explode on its first flight (and has to deal with the political fallout if it does)…..

      A private company spending it’s owners money can blow up as much hardware as they like, and only has to worry about keeping the FAA happy-enough to keep their licenses/permits…..

      • NASA also can’t afford to lose a rocket, last estimate pegs a single engine at 40 million dollars compared to raptors estimated cost roughly 1% of that!

        In fact, The cost over runs for SLS have grown so large, nasa has become unwilling to openly tally them.

        SLS is doomed once starship superheavy is crew certified.

  5. Good Team… really that is flat out amazing. Stunning really, given the FAA jerks open ended attempt at stopping the launch. Good on you Elon!!! Good on your TEAM. Same Thing. Outstanding.

  6. I guess they work close together on this, I dont think c61, adding a water cooled deck to the launch pad comes directly from an FAA official would it?

  7. The speed with which all of that was completed tells me they’ve already done all of that previously, and just haven’t told the FAA until now.

    • Exactly. The FAA gives the company the first opportunity to investigate themselves to see what went wrong. SpaceX probably also listed what steps they have done to mitigate the problems that they have identified. So it makes the work of the FAA easy. Do they agree with the problem identifies. Are there other items not identified. Are the corrections done sufficient to correct the identities problems. Remember, the role of the FAA isn’t only to regulate but to promote the industry. So, they want to be helpful.

      The timeline is as follows:
      – 4/20/23 – The launch / mishap
      – 3 weeks later, SpaceX successfully tests an improved flight termination system which was the most concerning failure.
      – 10 weeks after the launch a deluge system is built and successfully tested a week after that.
      – 6 weeks later SpaceX submits its findings (and presumably solutions already completed and demonstrated)
      – 3 weeks later the FAA closes its investigation listing (confirming) 63 changes that are needed to get a launch license.
      – 2 days later! SpaceX indicates that they have completed those 63 items (i.e. they were already done by time of submission)

      So, now we wait for SpaceX to announce a launch date!

      • Well, SpaceX has completed 57 of the 63 items. Elon says the remaining 6 are for future flights. But, the FAA statement says “all” must be completed prior to applying for modification to the launch license.

    • The entire review process is SpaceX driven with the FAA as an observing party. These are not requirements the FAA made, they are requirements that are identified by SpaceX and signed off on by the FAA.

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