SpaceX Completes Second Starship WDR, FAA Investigates Flight 3 Safety

With the second successful wet dress rehearsal (WDR) completed, SpaceX is making final preparations for the highly anticipated Flight 4 of the Starship vehicle. After successfully loading more than 10 million pounds of propellant into the stacked Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, the company confirmed that the launch is targeted as early as June 5, pending regulatory approval.

During the WDR, SpaceX demonstrated a remarkable capability by holding the fully fueled vehicle in a steady state for approximately 30 minutes close to T-0. This capability, which the company’s previous Falcon 9 rocket does not possess, could potentially allow for extended holds during the final countdown phase of an actual launch.

Following the detanking process, the Starship and Super Heavy vehicles were destacked for final inspections and preparations. One critical task involves closing the remaining panel gaps on the heat shield of Ship 29, which Elon Musk has identified as an important element for future missions, including NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program. Proving the functionality of the heat shield is essential to demonstrating the full capabilities of the Starship system.

SpaceX provided details on the heat shield’s performance during the previous Flight 3, stating:

“Starship went on to experience its first ever reentry from space, providing valuable data on heating and vehicle control during hypersonic reentry. The lack of attitude control resulted in an off-nominal entry, with the ship seeing much larger than anticipated heating on both protected and unprotected areas. High-definition live views of entry and a considerable amount of telemetry were successfully transmitted in real time by Starlink terminals operating on Starship.”

To address the attitude control issue, which was likely caused by a filter blockage in the system, SpaceX aims to incorporate more control redundancy and upgraded hardware to resist blockages for Flight 4.

One of the final critical steps before launch is the installation and arming of the flight safety system (FSS), which consists of detonation charges on both Booster 11 and Ship 29. These charges, delivered a few weeks ago to the explosive bunker near the launch site, will be installed in a multi-hour operation on the destacked vehicles, as the access point for the Ship’s FSS is not reachable from the ground when the stack is fully assembled.

With these preparations underway, SpaceX is poised to attempt the launch of Starship as soon as June 5, with the launch window opening at 7 AM CT. The duration of the window has not been disclosed by the company, but the anticipation for this milestone event continues to build.

Alongside the extensive technical preparations, SpaceX also had to navigate the regulatory landscape to obtain clearance for Flight 4. Following the mishap during Flight 3, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated a safety investigation as per its guidelines under 14 CFR Part 450.

SpaceX chose the Path Two approach for this investigation, which involves an FAA public safety determination. In this process, the FAA evaluates all available information to assess whether the previous flight involved any safety-critical system failures that could pose a risk to public safety.

In a statement to NASASpaceflight, the FAA reported: “After a comprehensive review, the FAA determined no public safety issues were involved in the anomaly that occurred during the SpaceX Starship OFT-3 launch on March 14. This public safety determination means the Starship vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met. SpaceX has not yet received FAA license authorization for the next Starship launch.”

This clearance suggests that while the root cause of the mishap has not been fully identified by SpaceX, the FAA has determined that the flight did not pose any public safety concerns. As a result, SpaceX can proceed with Flight 4 while the overall investigation into the mishap remains open, contingent upon meeting all other licensing requirements.

To obtain the necessary authorization, SpaceX is currently in the process of modifying its existing launch license, VOL 23-129, which governs the Starship Super Heavy vehicle flights. It remains unclear whether the company will apply for a single flight or multiple flights under this license modification.

With the regulatory hurdles cleared, SpaceX can now focus on finalizing the remaining technical preparations, including conducting flight readiness and launch readiness reviews, closing out the heat shield on Ship 29, and performing final inspections on both vehicles. The successful completion of these tasks will pave the way for the highly anticipated launch of Starship Flight 4, potentially as early as June 5.