Hey everybody, welcome back to the show. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about SpaceX and Starship program. And after the initial Starship launch ended in a dramatic explosion above the Gulf of Mexico, the company's forward momentum has stalled on the launch front. Three months have passed since the incident, and the company's yet to submit a final accident report to the Federal Aviation Administration or the FAA.
Now this indicates that the rocket program remains grounded for now, and a second launch may not happen this summer, unlike what Elon Musk has said now overseeing the investigation
into April 20th launch. The FAA stated on Wednesday that it still awaits the critical report that will identify the necessary corrective measures SpaceX must undertake before gaining clearance for another launch from Boca Chica Starbase, Texas, And an FA spokesperson avoided conjecture regarding the potential completion date for the agency's investigation, explaining that public safety and actions yet to be taken by SpaceX will dictate the timeline.
Now, according to the FA, any return to flight operations will only be sanctioned when it is determined that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety or any other aspect of the operator's license. Now, they emphasize that the mishap investigation is still ongoing, though now adding to the situation's complexity. SpaceX is also trying to modify its current license, which was suspended after the first
launch. Now, despite these regulatory roadblocks, though, Elon Musk and SpaceX are projecting a swift return to launching operations. The company, which is held privately, has been showcasing repairs to its orbital launch mount now. This facility sustained significant damage from starships first launch, raising public safety and environmental
concerns. The rocket, after a chaotic liftoff and loss of control, was annihilated over the Gulf of Mexico and while dealing with the aftermath, SpaceX has made enhancements to its launch site. Among the new additions is a steel plate designed to shield the pad in future test launches. Last week, the company shared on Twitter that had transported a new Super heavy booster prototype to the pad for testing ahead of Flight A continuing its updates.
On Monday, SpaceX revealed that it's completed propellant load tests on two different boosters. Booster 9 and Booster 10 images displayed the boosters glazed with frost after being filled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen. The absence of a completed investigation report and the FAE approval for another launch suggests that Musk's timeline for resuming test flights may be overly optimistic.
Musk, who's also responsible for Tesla, The Boring Company, Neurolink Operations, as well as Twitter, has stated on June 13th that the Starship would be ready for another launch within 6 to 8 weeks, aligning with the end of July or early August time frame. A SpaceX Starship, the world's most powerful rocket, was launched from its Starbase facility at Boca Chica on April
20th of this year. It managed to clear the launch tower, which Elon Musk said was a hope at most and at recent altitude, of 24 miles above Earth before culminating in an uncontrolled explosion over the Gulf of Mexico. At liftoff though, the Rockets 33 Raptor engines fired up, but there were only 31 that were actually firing. And they also fired chunks of concrete and metal from the launch site across 385 acres, igniting wildfires and kicking up a dust storm of pulverized concrete.
Scattering debris possibly up to 6.5 miles away from the launch site must conceded the launch had caused an unforeseen rock tornado under the Starship super heaviest booster stage during liftoff, and despite the havoc, he insisted there were no significant environmental damage. And since the launch, SpaceX has progressed.
At the launch compound has been closely monitored, and since the three months this Starship debuted, SpaceX has made a huge amount of progress on the hardware of the boosters and the ships, and also on the launch site, ground systems down a Starbase Boca Chicas, Texas. Now, despite the optimism, SpaceX still has legal hurdles to overcome before resuming flight testing from Starbase. Along with the FAA, SpaceX is a codefendant in a federal lawsuit contesting the FA A's initial
approval of the Starship launch program, and the suit was filed by environmental and indigenous groups that challenge the FA A's review and approval of Spacex's plans. The plaintiffs are pushing for the agency to carry out an environmental impact statement, a process that could potentially ground the rocket program for many years to come.
Now, the suit alleges that the F approval violated federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, due to an adequate consideration of potential harm to wildlife. The FA and SpaceX have largely denied these allegations and court filings and have requested the lawsuit's dismissal. SpaceX is the most valuable aerospace and defense company in the United States, and the company has asked to intervene in the lawsuit, citing a direct subsequential economic interest.
Now Musk has stated the SpaceX has invested 3 billion dollars since 2014 and developing the Starbase facility, and the facility is pivotal to the company's growth though, with plans to use Starship for launching more Star Link satellites into orbit and returning NASA astronauts to the moon with the Artemis 3 program. Musk also has ambitions to use the reusable rocket to transport human beings to Mars for the first time. Now, after the initial Starship launch, Musk stood edit this out.
After the initial Starship launch, Musk said he expected to spend an additional $2 billion on the rocket program, hoping to attempt at least five launches by the end of 2023.
However, the test is in limbo right now and NASA has actually voiced concerned over Spacex's ability to have its lunar Lander version of Starship ready and time to carry astronauts to the moon According to the space agency schedule and early June, NASA indicated that it's Artemis 3 moon mission originally planned for late 2025 is likely to be postponed until 2026 due to Spacex's complications with the Starship program. NASA's Associate Administrator Jim Free commented on the
situation. They said with the difficulties the SpaceX has had, that's really concerning now. Thank you so much for listening to the show today. I really do appreciate you stopping by and hanging out and being part of this community. If you want to help out even more, please take a second and hit the subscribe. Or if you want to help out a little bit more, please hit the follower subscribe button on the podcast platform that you're
listening on right now. It would really help us out, really help you out too because you get cool SpaceX news all the time. So that's about it for today. Take care of yourselves at each other, and I will see you in the next one.