FAA closes investigations into Blue Origin landing fail, Starship Flight 7 explosion
- Reference: 1743524827
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/01/faa_closes_blue_origin_and/
- Source link:
The causes of the Starship [1]Flight 7's "rapid unscheduled disassembly" in January this year are [2]well documented . In a nutshell, there were stronger-than-expected vibrations during flight, which increased stress on the propulsion system. The subsequent hardware failure resulted in the destruction of the Starship vehicle. The explosion took place over the Turks and Caicos islands southeast of the Bahamas.
The FAA [3]said , "SpaceX identified 11 corrective actions to prevent a reocurrence of the event. The FAA verified that SpaceX implemented corrective actions prior to Flight 8."
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Flight 8 – which took place two months later, in March – also ended with an explosion of the Starship vehicle; the investigation into this incident remains open. Of the [5]Flight 8 explosion, the watchdog said, "A return to flight of the Starship vehicle is based on public safety. SpaceX may not launch Starship again until the FAA accepts the final mishap investigation report or makes a return to flight determination and all other licensing requirements are met."
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Also closed was the investigation into the fate of Blue Origin's New Glenn-1, which successfully deposited its payload into orbit but failed to achieve a successful landing. The cause, according to the FAA, was "an inability of New Glenn's first stage to restart the engines, preventing a reentry burn from occurring, and resulting in the loss of the stage.
"Blue Origin identified seven corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence of the event. The FAA will verify that Blue Origin implements corrective actions prior to the launch of the New Glenn-2 mission."
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Blue Origin gave some additional details in a [9]post on X regarding the report. Three BE-4 engines did not re-ignite properly, rendering the landing attempt doomed to failure.
[10]Isar’s first orbital rocket crashes into sea – CEO calls it a 'great success'
[11]50 years ago the last Saturn rocket rolled out of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building
[12]Boeing warns SLS staff that job cuts could be on the way
[13]Words alone won't get the stars and stripes to Mars
As for the corrective actions, Blue Origin said the fixes would focus on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements, which it is already addressing.
"We expect to return to flight in late spring and will attempt to land the booster again."
Blue Origin launched its New Glenn-1 mission at 0703 UTC on January 16, 2025. The rocket, powered by seven BE-4 engines, successfully released the Blue Ring pathfinder payload into orbit. However, an ambitious stretch goal to recover the first stage on the maiden flight was not met. Three BE-4 engines appeared to reignite, but telemetry, and subsequently the stage, was lost. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/17/spacex_starship_explosion_booster_catch/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/26/spacex_harmonic_response_starship/
[3] https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/statements/general-statements
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z-xh-DzVZggAx8dtVS4NLAAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/07/spacex_starship_mission_fail/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-xh-DzVZggAx8dtVS4NLAAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z-xh-DzVZggAx8dtVS4NLAAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z-xh-DzVZggAx8dtVS4NLAAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://x.com/blueorigin/status/1906753882375516247
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/01/failure_in_new_space/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/26/50_years_since_last_saturn/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/10/boeing_warns_sls_staff_that/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/21/usa_going_to_mars/
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: US Federal Aviation Administration
What's cheaper, buying the presidency and the goverment (or what's left of it) or complying with all regulations?
Re: US Federal Aviation Administration
Buying the pResidency and gub'mint may not be cheaper, but it sure is more fun.
As G. W. Bush (in)famously once said: 'This would be a heck of a lot easier if this was a dictatorship, just so long as I am the dictator'.
Re: US Federal Aviation Administration
Buying the government comes with free airmiles
Didn't ULA have problems relighting BE-4 engines as well? This is starting to sound like a design flaw.
There is no need for ULA to relight the BE-4 engines on first stage, they aren't trying to do a recovery.
Propellant management
Pump-fed rocket engines really dislike air bubbles. Turbo pumps have a tendency to detonate if they're fed air bubbles. This makes it not so much an engine issue, but a propellant issue and might require some redesign of the rocket to be able to settle the fuel and oxidizer as well as purge air from the system before trying to relight engines. Way back, SpaceX released some video from inside one of the propellant tanks and you can see how the liquid becomes a volume of globules which is a big problem. Since Lox and liquid CH4 are too cold to use a rubber bladder, another way must be found that works reliably and doesn't add too much mass.
FAA and legislation
When I learned to fly almost 30 years ago, my instructors already told me "aviation legislation is written in blood".
Somebody has to die during one of these failed flights, it seems.
US
FederalAviationAdministrationElon has fixed the problem
We remove the "Federal" part because that's communism.
and the "Administration "part because that's government waste
and we are left with U.S.A.... chants ... USA .... USA