An investigation into a second, more recent SpaceX rocket is explosion still underway.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifts off Jan. 16, 2025. Credit: Blue Origin
The Federal Aviation Administration has completed its investigations looking into “mishaps” that occurred during Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket launch and SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 in January.
On Jan. 16, Blue Origin’s New Glenn-1 reached orbit on its debut flight. While the launch was successful, the rocket lost its lower stage during its descent.
Later that evening, SpaceX launched its own Starship rocket, which unintendedly exploded over the Caribbean. At 400 feet tall, Starship was the largest rocket ever to fly—albeit a trip cut short.
The FAA is required to investigate and provide corrective actions following a mishap event via its Mishap Response Program. In these cases, the agency oversaw investigations conducted internally by both Blue Origin and SpaceX regarding their own incidents.
The agency accepted both companies’ findings, which can be read here.
There were no public injuries or public property damage reported by New Glenn-1’s mishap.
Blue Origin found that New Glenn’s first stage was unable to restart its engines and prevent a reentry burn from occurring, causing its stage loss. Seven corrective actions were identified to prevent this from happening again, and the FAA will verify these actions are implemented prior to the launch of the New Glenn-2 mission.
According to reporting by Reuters, New Glenn-2 aims to launch later this Spring.
There were no public injuries during Starship Flight 7’s mishap, though there was one confirmed report of minor vehicle damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
SpaceX found the probable root cause for the loss of Starship was stronger than anticipated vibrations during flight, which led to increased stress on, and failure of, the hardware in the propulsion system. Eleven corrective actions were identified, and the FAA verified that SpaceX would implement them prior to Flight 8.
Second Starship explodes
On March 6, SpaceX ‘s Starship Flight 8 met its predecessor’s fate when it too exploded over the Caribbean.
The FAA noted in its concluded Starship Flight 7 investigation that it is overseeing another SpaceX-led investigation into this mishap. This investigation remains open.
“A return to flight of the Starship vehicle is based on public safety,” the FAA stated on its website. “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.”
Editor’s note: A version of this story originally appeared on FLYING.
