The FAA, which is overseeing an investigation into the April 20 launch, said Wednesday it was still awaiting the report it needs to identify corrective actions SpaceX must take to get the OK to launch again from Boca Chica.
An FAA spokesperson declined to speculate when the agency's investigation might be completed, saying that "public safety and actions yet to be taken by SpaceX will dictate the timeline."
"The FAA will not allow a return to flight operations until it determines that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety or any other aspect of the operator's license," the spokesperson said. "The mishap investigation is ongoing."
SpaceX is seeking a modification of its existing license, which was suspended after the first launch from its Starbase facility near Brownsville.
The FAA's update comes as Elon Musk and his private space company are publicly teasing a fast return to launch mode.
The privately held firm has been touting repairs to its orbital launch mount, which was heavily damaged by Starship's first launch and led to concerns about public safety and environmental damage from operations there. After lifting off and tumbling out of control, the rocket was destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico.
Starbase progress
SpaceX has added a steel plate to protect the pad in future test demonstrations and said last week on Twitter that it had rolled a new Super Heavy booster prototype to the pad "for testing ahead of flight."
On Monday, the company shared two images showing that it had completed "propellant load tests" on a pair of booster prototypes. The images show stainless steel boosters frosted over after being filled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen.
SpaceX fans celebrated the images as signs the company is on track to send another Starship into the skies soon. But without a completed investigation report and FAA approval for another flight, it appears increasingly unlikely Musk will meet a timeline he earlier had announced for getting test launches back on track.
The SpaceX CEO, who also oversees Tesla, The Boring Co. and Neuralink operations in Texas, said June 13 that the Starship would be ready to launch again in "6 to 8 weeks," meaning late this month or early August.
SpaceX had launched the 400-foot-tall Starship on April 20 from its Starbase facility at Boca Chica. The world's most powerful rocket cleared the launch tower and reached an altitude of 24 miles above Earth before ending in an out-of-control explosion over the Gulf of Mexico. At liftoff, the rocket's 33 Raptor engines blasted concrete and metal from the launch site across 385 acres, touched off wildfires and kicked up a cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site.
In the aftermath, Musk acknowledged the launch generated what he called an unexpected "rock tornado" under the Starship's Super Heavy booster stage during liftoff, but no real environmental damage.
SpaceX fans and media have been closely following apparent upgrades at the launch compound. "In the three months since Starship's debut, SpaceX had made remarkable progress on the hardware and launch site," Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, said last week on Twitter.
Legal hurdles
Beyond the FAA approval it needs to resume flight testing from Starbase, the company is also facing legal hurdles.
SpaceX has joined the FAA as a co-defendant in a federal lawsuit challenging the FAA's original approval of the Starship launch program. The lawsuit filed by environmental and Indigenous groups challenges the agency's "review and approval" of the company's plans and wants the agency to conduct an environmental impact statement, which could keep the rocket program grounded for years.
The plaintiffs, including the Center for Biological Diversity, American Bird Conservancy, SurfRider Foundation, Save Rio Grande Valley and the Carrizo-Comecrudo Nation of Texas, filed a lawsuit in May saying FAA approval of the program violated federal laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, because it allegedly didn't adequately consider potential harm to wildlife. They alleged the mitigations the FAA required were not enough to avoid "significant adverse effects" to endangered species, their habitat, or to tribes that count the land and wildlife sacred.
The FAA and SpaceX have denied most the allegations in court filings and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
SpaceX, the most valuable aerospace and defense country in the nation with a net worth of nearly $150 billion, had asked the court to intervene in the case, saying it has a "direct and substantial" economic interest.
Musk says SpaceX has invested $3 billion since 2014 developing the Starbase facility. It's key to growth of the company, which wants to use Starship to deliver more Starlink communication satellites into orbit and to return NASA astronauts to the moon. Musk also has long-held plans to use the reusable rocket to transport humans to Mars.
After the first Starship launch, Musk said he expected to spend another $2 billion on the rocket program to attempt five test launches by the end of 2023.
With the testing program on hold, NASA has expressed concerns over the company's inability to have its lunar lander version of Starship ready to carry astronauts to the moon on the space agency's timetable. In early June, NASA said its Artemis 3 moon mission planned for late 2025 is likely to be delayed to 2026 because of the company's problems.
"With the difficulties that SpaceX has had, that's really concerning," said Jim Free, NASA's associate administrator for exploration systems development.
SpaceX did not respond to a list of questions Wednesday.
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