Fish and Wildlife's comments were published yesterday. I gather that the document was deleted from the original location, but as I recall, it was pretty much copied and pasted into the body of the final FAA determination WRITTEN RE-EVALUATION OF THE 2022 FINAL PROGRAMMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE SPACEX STARSHIP/SUPER HEAVY LAUNCH VEHICLE PROGRAM AT THE BOCA CHICA LAUNCH SITE IN CAMERON COUNTY, TEXAS. I remember the bit about "Per the table above, an average summertime thunderstorm at Boca Chica would deposit more water over the landscape than any single or all combined activations of the deluge system".
pigeonberry
joined 2 years ago
The FAA has repeated multiple times: there is no launch licence yet for a second launch. Since the FAA asked the Fish and Wildlife Service to look into the matter, I think it's highly unlikely that the FAA would issue the licence before FWS says it's O.K.
I don't know that there has been a definitive statement of the exact ending date. The Xeet summary provided included "The FWS has up to 135 days to submit the final biological opinion to the FAA (Started in August)." If it's 4 months including weekends and holidays, it could be up to December 1 to December 31ish. But it could be handled before then, or if the FAA agrees, the deadline could be extended, or maybe it's working days only. Also, the FAA would likely need time to digest it and issue its own ruling.
But there have been other reports that the FAA hopes to be done with it by October. So maybe they have inside knowledge.
I'm sorry, but I don't follow what you're referring to. I think the new render is near the top, showing Starship and Super Heavy stacked. I didn't look at the page before, so I don't know what else might have changed.
Eric Berger quoted a tweet from the FAA here, but it was in the form of an image. A text transcript was kindly provided by World Spills @WorldSpills here:
SpaceX conducted a test flight of the Starship/Super Heavy at Boca Chica, TX on April 20, 2023. As a result of that launch, SpaceX completed a mishap investigation with FAA oversight; this investigation analyzed the launch, mishap events, and corrective actions. Before it is authorized to conduct a second Starship/ Super Heavy launch, SpaceX must obtain a modified license from the FAA that addresses all safety, environmental, and other regulatory requirements. As part of that license application determination process, the FAA will review new environmental information, including changes related to the launch pad, as well as other proposed vehicle and flight modifications. The FAA will complete a Written Reevaluation (WR) to the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) evaluating the new environmental information, including Endangered Species Act consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. If the FAA determines through the WR process that the contents of the PEA do not remain valid in light of the changes proposed for Flight 2, additional environmental review will be required. Accordingly, the FAA has not authorized SpaceX's proposed Flight 2.
It was followed by untranscribed
The FAA will provide updates with notification of any license determination or results of additional environmental review.
When the major problems from your first test can be illustrated by Heath Ledger in 2008 -- debris zoom but boom no boom -- it's not surprising.
I got the impression from reading the few posts about it that it's going to start as a backup for the existing crew Dragon tower. Whether it could ever become Son of Mechazilla in the long run I don't know, and I doubt it. I suspect, though on no evidence other than prior practice and the 5-step algorithm, that SpaceX would rather debug the first model some before building a second.
This is a link to my separate story post: "(Reuters) US could advance SpaceX license as soon as October after rocket exploded in April", including a bit of interpretation.
Thank you for the pointer. Fixed.
I copied and pasted it here. Thanks to @[email protected] for pointing me back at the RES extension so I could get the source.
Each item is on its own line. C## is the ID#. If there's text before it on its line, that's its Observation / Description section name; if it's at the start of the line, the Observation / Description string is the next one above.
List of Actions:
| Observation / Description | ID# | Corrective Action Description | Status | | ---------------------------------- |
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------- | | Tank sensing | C1 | Replace certain fittings with welds inside tank | Complete | | Aft end cavity environment failure | C2 | Increase fire suppression capacity by 15x | Complete | | | C3 | Replace certain manifolds with dedicated drain per corresponding valve | Complete | | | C4 | Replace certain flanges with better seals and improve joint design | Complete | | | C5 | Replace certain fittings with welds in specific location | Complete | | Booster leak | C6 | Replace accessible valves of a certain type with new design | Complete | | mitigation | C7 | Replace certain flange bolts with higher strength bolts and increase torque | Complete | | | C8 | Disallow certain seal re-use, and add cameras to monitor all engines during ground operations | Complete | | | C9 | Increased scrutiny on leak checks | Complete | | | C10 | 90+ cameras added to detect leakage during operations | Complete | | | C11 | Add leak capture and drain hardware for valves of a certain type | Complete | | | C12 | Add leak check and screen for porosity on igniter units | Complete | | | C13 | Improved igniter seal design | Future Action | | | C14 | Weld certain alignment bolt holes shut | Complete | | Raptor leak | C15 | Reassess k-factor and torque for engine hot joint #1, add leak capture and route overboard | Complete | | mitigation | C16 | Reassess k-factor and torque for engine hot joint #2 | Complete | | | C17 | Add safety cable to certain fluid lines on high risk locations | Complete | | | C18 | Add one methane sensor per engine bay | Complete | | | C19 | Ground test campaign to better characterize typical engine leakage | Complete | | | C20 | Improve structural FEA/fatigue analysis for all medium to high criticality lines | Complete | | | C21 | Add insulation to engine lines sensitive to thermally driven loads | Complete | | Collateral | C22 | Add insulation to avionic harnessing | Complete | | damage from fire | C23 | Add backup wire to specific harness | Complete | | | C24 | Improve thermal protection of avionics tray | Complete | | | C25 | Change routing to flight computers | Complete | | | C26 | Replace sensor with more reliable units | Complete | | | C27 | Coat gimbal assembly with lubricant | Complete | | | C28 | Add pump pressure sensors to certain location | Complete | | | C29 | Add pump temperature sensors to certain location | Complete | | Booster reliability | C30 | Replace certain bolts, and increase torque for certain flanges | Complete | | improvement | C31 | New seal design for certain areas of booster | Complete | | | C32 | Add electric actuation system | Complete | | | C33 | Better manage engine bay pressure by increasing fire suppression capacity by | Complete | | | C34 | Change certain booster valve timing | Future Action | | | C35 | Add final leak checks for critical joints | Complete | | | C36 | Add support bracket for certain sensor | Complete | | | C37 | Add support bracket for certain sensor | Complete | | | C38 | Add check valves to certain areas of engine | Complete | | | C39 | Improve oxygen valve design | Future Action | | | C40 | Improve oxygen valve seal design | Future Action | | Raptor reliability | C41 | Improve design of hot manifold | Future Action | | improvement | C42 | Change nitrogen shutdown usage | Complete | | | C43 | Change engine shutdown logic | Complete | | | C44 | Increase capability for ground leakage mitigation | Complete | | | C45 | Redesign fire suppression system | Complete | | | C46 | Change conditions around bolts | Complete | | | C47 | Change timing of specific valve actuation | Complete | | Avionics reliability | C48 | Eliminate certain type of connector | Complete | | improvement | C49 | Redesign network architecture | Future Action | | Risk Process | C50 | Improve risk tracking process | Complete | | | C51 | Implement improvements to safety system | Complete | | Safety System | C52 | Verify flight safety system design improvements using additional type of test article | Complete | | | C53 | Verify flight safety system design improvements via analysis | Complete | | | C54 | Perform component testing | Complete | | | C55 | Review and improve operations surrounding flight safety system | Complete | | | C56 | Improve CAD controls | Complete | | Control | C57 | Add engineering walkdown | Complete | | Change | C58 | Improve use of change management system | Complete | | | C59 | Redesign of launch pad deck | Complete | | Pad Design | C60 | Improve assumptions for new pad deck design | Complete | | | C61 | Add water cooled pad deck | Complete | | Pad Design Process | C62 | Improve pad deck design documentation | Complete | | | C63 | Improve pad design process | Complete |
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The licence has been approved, the NOTAM and marine warnings published, closure announced.