FAA closes investigation into explosive 2nd flight of SpaceX's Starship megarocket

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has closed the investigation into the second flight of SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle, the agency announced this afternoon ., in keeping with the company's fast-paced"build, fly and iterate" philosophy. But today's news does not constitute clearance to launch, the FAA stressed.

"Prior to the next launch, SpaceX must implement all corrective actions and receive a license modification from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements," agency officials wrote in an emailed statement today. "The FAA is evaluating SpaceX’s license modification request and expects SpaceX to submit additional required information before a final determination can be made," they added.The mishap investigation, which SpaceX led, identified 17 corrective actions, which the FAA accepted.

The other 10 corrective actions deal with the vehicle's 165-foot-tall upper stage, which is called Starship. Among these modifications are"vehicle hardware redesigns, operational changes, flammability analysis updates, installation of additional fire protection and guidance and modeling updates," FAA officials wrote.The stainless-steel Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.

Things went much better on flight two this past November. The two stages separated on time, for example, and the upper stage likely would have reached orbit if it had been carrying a payload,. , and the vehicle got off the ground again on Nov. 18. But you shouldn't expect such a lengthy wait this time around, considering how much progress SpaceX made on flight number two.

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