FAA clears Starship Flight 9 launch after closing the Flight 8 investigation

FAA has approved the Starship Flight 9 launch license after closing the Flight 8 mishap investigation. So, the company no longer needs to wait any longer, and it can now focus on completing the primary objectives.

The agency made this announcement earlier today via a statement that a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap has been completed and found that the company has fixed all issues that caused the mishap.

“Therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight,” wrote the FAA in the statement.

Recently, the FAA has also made a new change in Starship’s hazardous flight zone and expanded its area due to the past two second-stage hardware failures.

Launched on March 6, Flight 8 successfully lifted off from the launch pad at Starbase, Texas. The first stage separated from the ship, returned to the launch site, and was caught by the catch tower.

The ship, on the other hand, ignited its six Raptor engines and continued its ascent to its planned trajectory. However, an energetic event occurred in the aft portion of the ship, which turned into a malfunction in the Raptor engines before the end of the ascent burn.

This led to the loss of attitude control and communications with the Starship and turned the ship into debris after rapid unscheduled disassembly.

A similar event also occurred during Flight 7, and the FAA has been carrying out these two mishap investigations one after another, before closing them in a similar manner.

To ensure that the issue doesn’t occur for the third time, SpaceX is conducting repeated tests on the upper stage before it finally comes into use for Starship Flight 9.

Now that the FAA has closed the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation, Flight 9 has a clear path to the launch schedule, but an official announcement is yet to come.

Update – SpaceX has officially announced the Starship Flight 9 launch date for May 27, 2025. Check more information here.

(source)