Should the FAA oversee the SpaceX program?

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Space-X is being punished for daring to preference hiring of qualified US citizens

Elon Musk Wants to Hire Only American Citizens... Now, The Biden DOJ Is After Him

Is there some relevant reason why American citizens would be preferable? Is it language or culture issues? But if it's legal to discriminate in that way, why is the DoJ getting involved?

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX fails at another landing. There were 3 birds in the landing zone of the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship during the landing attempt. It's unclear if they were involved in the failure.

SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites, but misses rocket landing - CNN

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

SpaceX fails at another landing. There were 3 birds in the landing zone of the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship during the landing attempt. It's unclear if they were involved in the failure.

SpaceX launches another batch of Starlink satellites, but misses rocket landing - CNN

It appears to be another engine failure. The descent telemetry suggests a significant loss of thrust, as if one engine was misfiring, and the last few seconds of on-board video show an abnormal plume.

Let's hope they get this engine reliability problem sorted out quickly.

 

[rockytopva]

“The FAA closed the investigation of the Feb. 2 SpaceX Starship SN9 prototype mishap today, clearing the way for the SN10 test flight pending FAA approval of license updates," an FAA spokesperson said Friday (Feb. 19) in an emailed statement.

"The FAA provided oversight of the SN9 mishap investigation conducted by SpaceX. The SN9 vehicle failed within the bounds of the FAA safety analysis," the statement continued. "Its unsuccessful landing and explosion did not endanger the public or property. All debris was contained within the designated hazard area. The FAA approved the final mishap report, including the probable causes and corrective actions." - FAA closes investigation of SpaceX's Starship SN9's test-flight crash | Space

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX’s Starship SN10 Ready For Liftoff With FAA Probes Out of the Way...

SpaceX’s Starship SN10 Ready For Liftoff With FAA Probes Out of the Way

 

[durangodawood]

It appears to be another engine failure. The descent telemetry suggests a significant loss of thrust, as if one engine was misfiring, and the last few seconds of on-board video show an abnormal plume.

Let's hope they get this engine reliability problem sorted out quickly.

I guess for some things you do need to be a rocket scientist.

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX’s Starship SN10 To launch sometimes today....

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX SN10 Pulls Off Landing, Then Explodes Due To Methane Leak.

 

[Sophrosyne]

I doubt NASA has trained investigators for crashes and stuff like the FAA has. So to have the FAA investigate is probably the best solution as their experts have decades of experience dealing with crashes and engine failures so rocket engine failure is probably in their range of knowledge.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

SpaceX SN10 Pulls Off Landing, Then Explodes Due To Methane Leak.

Still, that flip-over and belly-flop fall manoever is pretty amazing. I think Musk will be happy they planted the landing. As I understand it, the current landing legs are rather an interim measure for something more stable, so it could quite easily have fallen over.

 

[Ponderous Curmudgeon]

Still, that flip-over and belly-flop fall manoever is pretty amazing. I think Musk will be happy they planted the landing. As I understand it, the current landing legs are rather an interim measure for something more stable, so it could quite easily have fallen over.

Wasn't the whole problem. partial combustion appeared before landing. Still an accomplishment.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

Wasn't the whole problem. partial combustion appeared before landing. Still an accomplishment.

I was referring to it leaning at an angle after it landed, not the explosion.

 

[rockytopva]

The National Weather Service in Seattle says burning debris from a rocket lit up Pacific Northwest skies Thursday night. “The widely reported bright objects in the sky were debris from a Falcon 9 rocket 2nd stage that did not successfully have a deorbit burn,” the service says in a tweet about the astral occurrence that the Seattle Times reports was seen shortly after 9 p.m. There were no reports of damage or other impacts on the ground. The Times reports the rocket delivered Starlink satellites, built in Redmond, Washington, into orbit earlier this week. SpaceX says the Falcon 9’s first stage returned to Earth and landed as planned on its ocean-going barge off the coast of Florida.

The Launch - SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on March 24, 2021. The first stage of the rocket landed several minutes later on the 'Of Course I Still Love You' droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. Full Story: https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink...

 

[rockytopva]

With so many crash landings I am not surprised that eyebrows are being raised...

Congress raises concerns about FAA’s handling of Starship launch license violation...

Congress raises concerns about FAA’s handling of Starship launch license violation - SpaceNews

 

[AV1611VET]

Should the FAA oversee the SpaceX program?

You decide:

"A New York Times investigation has found that the Federal Aviation Administration had for years brushed aside repeated warnings from pilots and experts, and from the behavior of the plane itself, that something was awry. The failure to heed those warnings raises troubling questions that go beyond the Roselawn crash, questions about the procedures and safeguards of the agency itself.

The agency does not routinely monitor crashes abroad of foreign-made planes operating in this country -- as happened with the ATR. It also relies heavily on manufacturers' evaluations of their own airplanes -- as with the ATR -- rather than conducting independent tests. As a result, its own experts increasingly lack the hands-on knowledge to ask the right questions."

SOURCE

 

[rockytopva]

SpaceX lost SN11 in the fog this morning with the cameras cutting out 5 minutes into the flight. “Looks like engine 2 had issues on ascent & didn't reach operating chamber pressure during landing burn, but in theory, it wasn't needed," Musk wrote on Twitter. "Something significant happened shortly after landing burn start. Should know what it was once we can examine the bits later today."