The FAA has ordered SpaceX to launch a formal investigation into the matter Starship rocket disintegrates A spectacular plume of burning debris plummeted to Earth during a test flight on Thursday, the agency announced Friday.

"The FAA requested that SpaceX conduct an accident investigation into the loss of the Starship vehicle during launch operations on January 16," the FAA said in a statement. "There have been no reports of public injuries and the FAA is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to confirm Report of damage to public property in Turks and Caicos Islands.”

within minutes Starship disintegratesVideo posted on social media showed the sudden fireball producing a large amount of debris (possibly ignited propellant after a malfunction), and the FAA activated a "debris response zone" and "slowed down briefly outside the area where the spacecraft debris was located." Aircraft speed" dropped. "

Other planes made brief stops at South Florida airports, with several "required to divert due to low fuel levels while remaining outside the affected area," the agency said.

Meanwhile, SpaceX said preliminary data showed a fire broke out in the rear of the Starship, destroying the spacecraft.

"Starship's upper stage successfully ignited all six Raptor engines and conducted a space ascent burn," the company said on its webpage. "The vehicle lost telemetry after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight before the burn was completed. Preliminary data suggests a fire broke out in the stern section of the ship, leading to a rapid and unexpected disassembly."

"Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly" (RUD) is SpaceX founder Elon Musk's favorite description when referring to catastrophic rocket failure. SpaceX has set up a "debris hotline" at 1-866-623-0234 and urges anyone who finds debris from a Starship to call or notify the company at recovery@spacex.com.

An accident occurred during a test flight

The accident occurred during the seventh test flight of SpaceX's giant Super Heavy Starship rocket at SpaceX's Gulf Coast Manufacturing and Flight Test Center in Boca Chica, Texas.

The super-heavy first stage completed a successful mission, lifting the starship upper stage from the lower atmosphere, then flipping and flying back to the seaside launch pad, where it was pulled up from mid-air by a giant mechanical arm on the launch tower.

At the same time, the starship continued to sail into space relying on the power of six engines. But about eight and a half minutes after liftoff, telemetry data shared on a SpaceX webcast showed the engines shutting down in a staggered pattern before the data suddenly froze and stopped updating.

Numerous photos and videos posted on social media showed trails of smoking debris fanning out from the fireball in the afternoon sky, a scene reminiscent of the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 and the deliberate re-entry of the Russian Mir space station in 2001. Return to the atmosphere and disintegrate.

Thursday's accident is not expected to affect SpaceX's commercial operations. The company dominates the commercial launch industry with its partially reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets launched from Florida and California, boosters that have nothing in common with Starship.

But Musk sees Super Heavy Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, as the future of the company. Its two-stage design can fly to a rocket-powered landing on its own for rapid refurbishment and relaunch, a key element of the company's development. to reduce launch costs.

SpaceX is ramping up test flights to quickly validate performance, test new ideas, identify problem areas and implement fixes on downstream flights.

It's unclear how the FAA-authorized investigation might affect the testing program.

"Accident investigations are designed to enhance public safety, determine the root cause of the incident, and identify corrective actions to avoid recurrence," the FAA said.

"The FAA will be involved in every step of the SpaceX-led accident investigation process and must approve SpaceX's final report, including any corrective actions. Return to flight is subject to the FAA's determination that any systems, processes or procedures associated with the accident did not affect public safety."

It's unclear how long the investigation might take and when the super-heavy Starship can fly again. But it will almost certainly extend SpaceX's testing program.

During Thursday's test flight, SpaceX said that 2025 "will be a transformational year for Starship, with the goal of enabling online reuse of the entire system and executing increasingly ambitious missions as we continue to iterate and be able to combine human and cargo to Earth orbit, the moon and space”. Mars. "

Getting the Super Heavy Starship flying regularly is critical to NASA's Artemis moon program. NASA is paying SpaceX to develop a variant of the Starship upper stage to carry astronauts to the lunar surface in 2027.

In order to send a Starship to the moon, SpaceX must first launch it into low Earth orbit, where a series of other Starship "tankers" must rendezvous, dock and autonomously refuel the moon-bound craft so that it You can break out of the earth's orbit and go to deep space.

The astronauts launched by NASA's Space Launch System rocket will then rendezvous with the starship in lunar orbit before descending to the lunar surface.

NASA's contract requires astronauts to conduct an unmanned lunar landing test flight before being allowed to descend on the lunar surface in a lunar rover. An ongoing testing program will determine when this can be achieved.