Starship's Latest Flight Ends in Disintegration, FAA Investigation Launched

Making Humanity Multiplanetary has been a difficult endeavor for SpaceX and one that was always going to be fraught with failures and delays; a common theme in spaceflight.

SpaceX's Starship flight 8, which launched Thursday night from Starbase, Texas, exhibited a mixed performance profile. While the Super Heavy booster achieved a successful return and tower capture, a critical milestone for rapid reusability objectives, the Starship upper stage encountered significant anomalies during its ascent. Telemetry data indicates premature shutdowns of multiple Raptor engines, leading to a consequential loss of attitude control. This engine failure cascaded into a structural disintegration of the vehicle which resulted in reentry over the Caribbean.

This, being the 8^th flight of Starship, has shown that anomalies are likely moving forward as SpaceX has a rather "trial and error" approach to progress. In contrast, as an example, is Blue Origin's "Gradatim Ferociter" (step by step ferociously) which calls for a more gradual approach to spaceflight.

With this mishap, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation. According to the FAA,  "A mishap investigation is designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the event, and identify corrective actions to avoid it from happening again. The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led mishap investigation process and must approve SpaceX’s final report, including any corrective actions. A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety. "

With the recent layoffs at the FAA, reportedly "Only three of the 132 FAA technical employees fired by the agency in mid-February under orders from the Trump administration have been reinstated to their jobs", the investigation might take longer than previously.  Despite the partial failure of the Starship system (meaning the booster worked correctly), Starship is not going anywhere. SpaceX has announced  that they are expanding to include Starship operations from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.