The FAA announced in a statement yesterday that it has completed a thorough safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 incident and concluded that SpaceX has adequately addressed the mishap’s causes, allowing the Starship to resume flights.
Similar to the seventh Starship test flight held in January, Flight 8 successfully detached from the Super Heavy booster, which then returned to the launch site at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, where it was captured by the launch tower. However, approximately nine minutes into the flight, the Starship began to tumble and ultimately exploded before its engines were shut down.
Previous test failures had led to debris falling over Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas. While SpaceX maintains that the debris has remained within designated Debris Response Areas, the FAA has intermittently paused and rerouted air traffic and even implemented full ground stops at several airports in Florida.
For the upcoming Flight 9, SpaceX intends to reuse the Super Heavy booster from Flight 7 for the first time. Consequently, the FAA is expanding the Aircraft Hazard Area (AHA) as an additional safety measure. The AHA for Flight 8 spanned about 885 nautical miles, while for Flight 9, it will increase to around 1,600 nautical miles, covering areas of Texas and Florida, as well as parts of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos.
Furthermore, the FAA is requiring that the launch window for Flight 9 be scheduled during off-peak transit times to “minimize disruption to U.S. and international airspace users.”
This announcement comes after the FAA granted a launch license for SpaceX’s 9th Starship test flight earlier this month and modified the license to enhance the company’s annual operational capacity, increasing the limit from five to 25 Starship launches annually at Boca Chica, Texas.
