FAA closes Blue Origin and SpaceX mishap investigations
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is closing its investigations into both the SpaceX Starship Flight 7 explosion and Blue Origin New Glenn-1 landing failure.
The causes of the Starship Flight 7’s “rapid unscheduled disassembly” in January this year are well documented. In a nutshell, there were stronger-than-expected vibrations during flight, which increased stress on the propulsion system. The subsequent hardware failure resulted in the destruction of the Starship vehicle. The explosion took place over the Turks and Caicos islands southeast of the Bahamas.
The FAA said, “SpaceX identified 11 corrective actions to prevent a reocurrence of the event. The FAA verified that SpaceX implemented corrective actions prior to Flight 8.”
Flight 8 – which took place two months later, in March – also ended with an explosion of the Starship vehicle; the investigation into this incident remains open. Of the Flight 8 explosion, the watchdog said, “A return to flight of the Starship vehicle is based on public safety. SpaceX may not launch Starship again until the FAA accepts the final mishap investigation report or makes a return to flight determination and all other licensing requirements are met.”
Also closed was the investigation into the fate of Blue Origin’s New Glenn-1, which successfully deposited its payload into orbit but failed to achieve a successful landing. The cause, according to the FAA, was “an inability of New Glenn’s first stage to restart the engines, preventing a reentry burn from occurring, and resulting in the loss of the stage.
“Blue Origin identified seven corrective actions to prevent reoccurrence of the event. The FAA will verify that Blue Origin implements corrective actions prior to the launch of the New Glenn-2 mission.”
Blue Origin gave some additional details in a post on X regarding the report. Three BE-4 engines did not re-ignite properly, rendering the landing attempt doomed to failure.
As for the corrective actions, Blue Origin said the fixes would focus on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements, which it is already addressing.
“We expect to return to flight in late spring and will attempt to land the booster again.”
Blue Origin launched its New Glenn-1 mission at 0703 UTC on January 16, 2025. The rocket, powered by seven BE-4 engines, successfully released the Blue Ring pathfinder payload into orbit. However, an ambitious stretch goal to recover the first stage on the maiden flight was not met. Three BE-4 engines appeared to reignite, but telemetry, and subsequently the stage, was lost. ®
