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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • The FAA has repeated multiple times: there is no launch licence yet for a second launch. Since the FAA asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to look into the matter, I think it’s highly unlikely that the FAA would issue the licence before FWS says it’s O.K.

    I don’t know that there has been a definitive statement of the exact ending date. The Xeet summary provided included “The FWS has up to 135 days to submit the final biological opinion to the FAA (Started in August).” If it’s 4 months including weekends and holidays, it could be up to December 1 to December 31ish. But it could be handled before then, or if the FAA agrees, the deadline could be extended, or maybe it’s working days only. Also, the FAA would likely need time to digest it and issue its own ruling.

    But there have been other reports that the FAA hopes to be done with it by October. So maybe they have inside knowledge.








  • Eric Berger quoted a tweet from the FAA here, but it was in the form of an image. A text transcript was kindly provided by World Spills @WorldSpills here:

    SpaceX conducted a test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy at Boca Chica, TX on April 20, 2023. As a result of that launch, SpaceX completed a mishap investigation with FAA oversight; this investigation analyzed the launch, mishap events, and corrective actions. Before it is authorized to conduct a second Starship/ Super Heavy launch, SpaceX must obtain a modified license from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental, and other regulatory requirements. As part of that license application determination process, the FAA will review new environmental information, including changes related to the launch pad, as well as other proposed vehicle and flight modifications. The FAA will complete a Written Reevaluation (WR) to the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) evaluating the new environmental information, including Endangered Species Act consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the FAA determines through the WR process that the contents of the PEA do not remain valid in light of the changes proposed for Flight 2, additional environmental review will be required. Accordingly, the FAA has not authorized SpaceX’s proposed Flight 2.

    It was followed by untranscribed

    The FAA will provide updates with notification of any license determination or results of additional environmental review.













  • I copied and pasted it here. Thanks to @[email protected] for pointing me back at the RES extension so I could get the source.

    Each item is on its own line. C## is the ID#. If there’s text before it on its line, that’s its Observation / Description section name; if it’s at the start of the line, the Observation / Description string is the next one above.

    List of Actions:

    Observation / Description ID# Corrective Action Description Status
    Tank sensing C1 Replace certain fittings with welds inside tank Complete
    Aft end cavity environment failure C2 Increase fire suppression capacity by 15x Complete
    C3 Replace certain manifolds with dedicated drain per corresponding valve Complete
    C4 Replace certain flanges with better seals and improve joint design Complete
    C5 Replace certain fittings with welds in specific location Complete
    Booster leak C6 Replace accessible valves of a certain type with new design Complete
    mitigation C7 Replace certain flange bolts with higher strength bolts and increase torque Complete
    C8 Disallow certain seal re-use, and add cameras to monitor all engines during ground operations Complete
    C9 Increased scrutiny on leak checks Complete
    C10 90+ cameras added to detect leakage during operations Complete
    C11 Add leak capture and drain hardware for valves of a certain type Complete
    C12 Add leak check and screen for porosity on igniter units Complete
    C13 Improved igniter seal design Future Action
    C14 Weld certain alignment bolt holes shut Complete
    Raptor leak C15 Reassess k-factor and torque for engine hot joint #1, add leak capture and route overboard Complete
    mitigation C16 Reassess k-factor and torque for engine hot joint #2 Complete
    C17 Add safety cable to certain fluid lines on high risk locations Complete
    C18 Add one methane sensor per engine bay Complete
    C19 Ground test campaign to better characterize typical engine leakage Complete
    C20 Improve structural FEA/fatigue analysis for all medium to high criticality lines Complete
    C21 Add insulation to engine lines sensitive to thermally driven loads Complete
    Collateral C22 Add insulation to avionic harnessing Complete
    damage from fire C23 Add backup wire to specific harness Complete
    C24 Improve thermal protection of avionics tray Complete
    C25 Change routing to flight computers Complete
    C26 Replace sensor with more reliable units Complete
    C27 Coat gimbal assembly with lubricant Complete
    C28 Add pump pressure sensors to certain location Complete
    C29 Add pump temperature sensors to certain location Complete
    Booster reliability C30 Replace certain bolts, and increase torque for certain flanges Complete
    improvement C31 New seal design for certain areas of booster Complete
    C32 Add electric actuation system Complete
    C33 Better manage engine bay pressure by increasing fire suppression capacity by Complete
    C34 Change certain booster valve timing Future Action
    C35 Add final leak checks for critical joints Complete
    C36 Add support bracket for certain sensor Complete
    C37 Add support bracket for certain sensor Complete
    C38 Add check valves to certain areas of engine Complete
    C39 Improve oxygen valve design Future Action
    C40 Improve oxygen valve seal design Future Action
    Raptor reliability C41 Improve design of hot manifold Future Action
    improvement C42 Change nitrogen shutdown usage Complete
    C43 Change engine shutdown logic Complete
    C44 Increase capability for ground leakage mitigation Complete
    C45 Redesign fire suppression system Complete
    C46 Change conditions around bolts Complete
    C47 Change timing of specific valve actuation Complete
    Avionics reliability C48 Eliminate certain type of connector Complete
    improvement C49 Redesign network architecture Future Action
    Risk Process C50 Improve risk tracking process Complete
    C51 Implement improvements to safety system Complete
    Safety System C52 Verify flight safety system design improvements using additional type of test article Complete
    C53 Verify flight safety system design improvements via analysis Complete
    C54 Perform component testing Complete
    C55 Review and improve operations surrounding flight safety system Complete
    C56 Improve CAD controls Complete
    Control C57 Add engineering walkdown Complete
    Change C58 Improve use of change management system Complete
    C59 Redesign of launch pad deck Complete
    Pad Design C60 Improve assumptions for new pad deck design Complete
    C61 Add water cooled pad deck Complete
    Pad Design Process C62 Improve pad deck design documentation Complete
    C63 Improve pad design process Complete








  • Scott Manley had comments starting with Sep 7, 2023 · 12:42 AM UTC:

    Elon: we’re ready, just waiting on the license from the FAA

    FAA: funny you should say that, we’re just waiting on you guys to fix the problems you had.

    Sure it’s easy to think of the FAA as being a bunch of bureaucrats who should loosen up and cut SpaceX some slack, but after the rock tornado and wimpy FTS SpaceX has used up any slack it might have had.

    Furthermore, the FAA is being sued alleging that it cut SpaceX too much slack on the environmental review surrounding Starbase. Any action they take could end up in court and they need to be sure it’s defensible before a jury https://www.space.com/spacex-faa-seek-dismiss-starship-lawsuit

    Though someone else replied,

    Setting aside that this answer is the same the FAA would give regardless of whether it was the day after IFT-1 or the day before they issued a license.

    and Scott replied, “Correct”.



  • From Ars Technica:

    (Note: at 6 pm ET on Wednesday, the FAA issued the following statement).

    “The SpaceX Starship mishap investigation remains open,” the agency stated. “The FAA will not authorize another Starship launch until SpaceX implements the corrective actions identified during the mishap investigation and demonstrates compliance with all the regulatory requirements of the license modification process.”