FAA Requiring Mishap Investigations for Both Blue Origin and SpaceX

FAA Requiring Mishap Investigations for Both Blue Origin and SpaceX

The FAA is requiring Blue Origin and SpaceX to perform mishap investigations for their separate launch-related anomalies yesterday. Blue Origin’s New Glenn-1 mission successfully reached orbit, but the first stage did not land on a barge in the Atlantic as planned. SpaceX’s Starship Integrated Flight Test-7 ended when the second stage, Starship, disintegrated over the Caribbean near Turks and Caicos Islands.

Space launches occur every few days in the United States, but yesterday was rather unique in that test flights of two new, big rockets took place just hours apart from launch sites in Florida and Texas.

Blue Origin, owned by Jeff Bezos, conducted the first flight of the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket (NG-1) at 2:03 am ET from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched the seventh Integrated Flight Test (IFT-7) of its enormous Starship/Super Heavy rocket from Boca Chica, TX at 5:37 pm ET.

The launch of Blue Origin’s NG-1 itself went as planned, placing the second stage into orbit.

But the first stage did not return to a survivable landing. Designed to be reused 25 times, it successfully separated from the second stage about 5.5 minutes after liftoff and prepared to land on a barge in the Atlantic named Jacklyn after Bezos’s mother. The process is similar to what SpaceX pioneered with its Falcon 9 first stage starting in 2016.

Three of the seven BE-4 engines did relight as planned about 7.5 minutes after launch, but the image on the webcast of the engines firing soon froze apparently due to loss of telemetry. A few minutes later webcast commentator Ariane Cornell confirmed the first stage was lost. Blue Origin President David Limp later acknowledged it had been “an ambitious goal” for the first flight and they will try again in the spring.  They had not provided any further details about what happened as of press time.

The FAA has regulatory authority for commercial space launches and reentries to ensure public safety. Companies must get licenses from the FAA for each event. If something goes wrong — a “mishap” — the FAA can require the companies to investigate with FAA participation and make needed changes before another license is issued.

The FAA directed Blue Origin to do just that.

The FAA similarly is requiring SpaceX to conduct a mishap investigation into the Starship failure, which was much more impactful because of the large amount of debris that fell from the sky after the vehicle exploded. No people were aboard this suborbital flight and the only payloads were 10 Starlink simulators that were not intended to reach orbit.

The Super Heavy/Starship rocket lifted off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica at 5:37 pm ET. Super Heavy is the name of the first stage booster, while Starship is the second stage although the two together also are referred to as Starship. Both stages are designed to be reusable.

At first the launch went splendidly, with Super Heavy returning to the launch tower to be caught by mechanical arms called chopsticks. It was only the second time that such a feat was accomplished.

But as eyes focused on “the catch” at Boca Chica, Starship’s six engines were successively failing as it flew eastward over the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean on its way to the Indian Ocean. Contact was soon lost, but Starship’s fate quickly became evident as videos shot by people near Turks and Caicos started appearing on social media showing its fiery reentry.

This footage from Dean Olsen (@deankolsen87) on Twitter is apparently from Turks and Caicos.

If confirmed, this is likely Flight 7’s Starship undergoing uncontrolled re-entry after an in-flight break up.

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— Paul Byrne (@theplanetaryguy.bsky.social) January 16, 2025 at 6:30 PM


With all that debris raining down, the FAA said they “briefly slowed and diverted aircraft around the area.” FlightRadar24 posted a map of some of the aircraft whose flight plans were affected.

Musk appeared unconcerned. SpaceX is hoping to launch Starship 25 times this year. After explaining their initial conclusions that the failure was caused by a fire started by “an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall,” he forecast that “nothing suggests pushing next launch past next month.”

The FAA said today it is requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation, however, which could impact that timing. They said there are no reports of public injury, but they are working to confirm reports of public property damage on the islands.

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