SpaceX has published an official blog post/press release titled “Starships are Meant to Fly”. The post goes into detail on the reasons behind Starship’s 5th flight test delays.
It has been around a month since SpaceX announced that Flight 5 Starship is ready to fly. The only hurdle in this historic flight, landing, and rocket booster catch is the license approval by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
SpaceX CEO and Chief Engineer Elon Musk also commented on regulatory delays in spaceflight approvals on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) where he has more than 197 million followers. He wrote:
Unless there is significant government reform, laws & regulations will keep getting worse every year until every great endeavor, from high-speed rail between our cities to making life multiplanetary, is effectively illegal.
Currently, the Starship program is a giant test. Constant testing and improvement are required to make Starship spacecraft and launch rockets become more reliable and reusable. Rapid reusability for large space vehicles is a major SpaceX goal. This is critical to reach beyond space and make life multi-planetary.
However, the constant delays in acquiring environmental and other licenses to fly Starships are becoming a hurdle in achieving the program’s goals. SpaceX wrote in the official blog post:
Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware. This should never happen and directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space.
SpaceX also published a long post on X in response to a CNBC article that accused SpaceX of environmental non-compliance with its new water deluge system. SpaceX clarified its position and gave the details of environmental compliance with the relevant Texas authorities in using the deluge system.
Starship’s water-cooled flame deflector system is critical equipment for SpaceX’s launch operations. It ensures flight safety and protects the launch site and surrounding area.
Also known as the deluge system, it applies clean, potable (drinking) water to the engine exhaust during static fire tests and launches to absorb the heat and vibration from the rocket engines firing. Similar equipment has long been used at launch sites across the United States – such as Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Stations in Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California – and across the globe.
SpaceX worked with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the build and test of the water deluge system at Starbase to identify a permit approach. TCEQ personnel were onsite at Starbase to observe the initial tests of the system in July 2023, and TCEQ’s website shows that SpaceX is covered by the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.
Read the complete post on X (Twitter).
The last time we reported the Starship update, it was parked in an open space at Starbase known as the Sanchez lot. It had completed its round of pre-flight tests and validations. And it has been almost 3 weeks since then.
Not being able to perform the flight and landing catch test (Flight 5/IFT-5), has become a source of frustration for the Elon Musk-owned space operations company.
In previous Starship flight tests, SpaceX received the FAA approval usually late, but for Flight 5, this has dragged on for so long despite fulfilling the regulatory requirements.
The Flight 5 Starship launch is different because it also involves catching the Super Heavy rocket booster using the launch tower Chopsticks (huge arm-like structures that move vertically on a rail system of the launch tower for Starship integration, learn more).
The new rocket catch objective for Flight 5 is the major reason for delays in the FAA license grant to SpaceX. Hopefully, SpaceX’s press release clarifies the issues between the company and regulatory bodies and we can soon witness the next Starship launch test.
According to SpaceX, the latest estimate of the Flight 5 launch license by the FAA is late November 2024. The official SpaceX press release mentions it as follows:
We recently received a launch license date estimate of late November from the FAA, the government agency responsible for licensing Starship flight tests. This is a more than two-month delay to the previously communicated date of mid-September. This delay was not based on a new safety concern, but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis. The four open environmental issues are illustrative of the difficulties launch companies face in the current regulatory environment for launch and reentry licensing.
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