SpaceX has not yet received final approval for the ninth test flight of its super-heavy Starship rocket, despite a recently renewed license from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
15 In May, the FAA announced changes to the launch license from Starbase in Texas. In particular, it is about allowing a fivefold increase in the number of annual Starship launches - from 5 to 25. This decision is supported by an environmental assessment, published in early May.
However, launching Flight 9 not yet possible - the FAA must complete its investigation of the Flight incident 8, which took place 6 March. The first stage of the Super Heavy then successfully made a reverse landing using the turret's "sticks"., but the upper stage exploded less than a 10 minutes after the start, scattering debris over the Bahamas.
A similar scenario was observed during Flight 7 in January: then the Ship also exploded, and the wreckage entered the waters near the Turks and Caicos Islands, which is a British territory. After these incidents, the British government asked the US State Department to change the trajectory of Flight 9 for the security of the Caribbean region.
The FAA responded, expanding the danger zones for aviation and marine vessels not only in the USA, and in international waters. This decision is also related to that, that during Flight 9 for the first time, it is planned to reuse the Super Heavy grade, that flew in Flight 7. The company replaced only 4 with 33 Raptor engines, rest 29 will be reused.
SpaceX has already conducted the necessary ground tests of the engines, and Elon Musk announced the launch of Flight 9 for the current week. He also promised to release an update on the Starship program live before the flight.
However, until the FAA completes its review of Flight's incident report 8, the launch date remains uncertain.