The Federal Aviation Administration has ended its investigation into SpaceX ’s last two Starship epitome tests , dubbed SN8 and SN9 , harmonize toCNN ’s Jackie Wattles . News of thefederal probesthrew the launching of SpaceX ’s SN10 prototype into legal limbo , but on Sunday CEO Elon Musk seemed confident that the thing has been resolve , tweetingthat there ’s a “ practiced opportunity of pilot this week ! ”
Last month , news surfacedthat SpaceX violated its launching licence with its SN8 high - altitude test flight in December , which prompted a schematic investigation by the FAA . The way deny SpaceX ’s proposed update to its permit and did n’t greenlight the launch , but the company went forwards with it anyway , CNET reported . The rocket launched successfully but then exploded during a landing attempt . An FAA voice now say the SN8 matter — i.e. , their investigation into the license break , they were apparently all right with the whole explosion part — has since been settled , according to a tweet from Wattles this week .
As for the SN9 , whichalso explodedwhile attempt to set down during a high - altitude test earlier this month , the agency found that it “ fail within the spring of the FAA safety analytic thinking . ” It should be noted that the FAA ’s SN9 investigating wasa routine responseto a reentry nonstarter like the kind we saw on Feb. 2 .
Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA (Getty Images)
“ The FAA closed the investigation of the Feb. 2 SpaceX Starship SN9 prototype mishap today , clearing the way for the SN10 mental test flight pending FAA favorable reception of permission updates , ” an agency representative told Wattles on Friday . “ The FAA provided oversight of the SN9 mischance investigating conducted by SpaceX. The SN9 vehicle failed within the bound of the FAA base hit analysis . Its stillborn landing and plosion did not jeopardize the populace or dimension . ”
With these investigations settled , SpaceX should be clear to found its S10 prototype now , though it ’s anyone ’s guess when that ’ll be . Whenever it does end up going ahead with the launching , Musk has estimatedthat the S10 has a 60 % chance of landing successfully .
Not the bad odds I ’ve ever seen . But if these ballistic capsule are going to “ help humans retort to the Moon , and trip to Mars and beyond , ” asthe company claims , they really got ta estimate out this whole bursting into flames thing .
Elon MuskHyperloopOuter spaceSpaceflightSPACEXSpaceX Starship
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