Starship Gets Ready to Rumble

9/8/2023 - Written By Kimberly Siversen Burke

Is Elon Musk feeling okay?

We are slightly concerned he wasn’t spiking the ball on Twitter (ugh, X) seconds after the FAA announced Friday that the Starship mishap investigation was complete. But that’s not stopping us from wagering when the NOTAM will be issued for the second test flight of Starship. Our over/under is Sept. 22.

The FAA’s “63 corrective actions,” developed in tandem with SpaceX, are likely already completed and among the 1,000 modifications Musk mentioned back in June. After all, the FAA’s role in mishap investigations is less to develop a plan than it is to ensure that a plan is being followed. Think of them as the mom making sure you eat your vegetables. Not the chef sautéing them. And, based on a Sept. 5 Tweet from Musk, Starship is ready pending the FAA’s blessing. Thanks, Mom!

Unclear still is whether SpaceX will seek a permit for the estimated 350k gallons of water its newly constructed rocket bidet is expected to spray, possibly into protected wetlands. According to CNBC, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said that as of July 28, SpaceX had not applied for a Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) permit. Seeking this permit, which could have taken up to a year, might have been why SpaceX skipped implementing the water deluge system in the first place (also, Mars is an icy tundra). Will that stop Elon Musk from moving forward with test flight two? There is/was a 40-foot-tall, blindingly bright "X" shining like a Bat signal atop a building in San Francisco to suggest that the chances of it stopping him are about zero.

SOURCE: https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-closes-spacex-starship-mishap-investigation