A portion of Starbase photographed in 2023 before a Starship test flight. Photo: SpaceX

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared SpaceX’s Starship vehicle to return to flight, despite the mishap investigation for Flight 8 in March remaining open. For Starship’s next flight, the FAA nearly doubled the required hazard area for aircraft. 

Starship has been grounded after the seventh and eighth flights in January and March of this year ended in explosions. Both flights caused the FAA to activate temporary “debris response areas,” which happens when debris falls outside of the closed aircraft hazard areas. Both flights sent visible debris through the atmosphere, captured in videos on social media. 

The mishap investigation for Flight 8 remains open. Flight 8 took place in March while the Flight 7 mishap investigation was still open, and that flight ended in failure. The Flight 7 mishap investigation has since been closed. 

The FAA statement explained that when a vehicle in a mishap investigation can return to flight is based on public safety and the FAA “must find 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 FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, the Starship vehicle can return to flight. The FAA will verify SpaceX implements all corrective actions. … The FAA finds SpaceX meets all of the rigorous safety, environmental and other licensing requirements,” the statement said.

The FAA is however  expanding the Aircraft Hazard Area (AHA) for Flight 9 to cover approximately 1,600 nautical miles, after the AHA for Flight 8 was approximately 885 nautical miles. The AHA goes from the launch site in Texas through the Straits of Florida, including the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands. 

The FAA explained this change came after an updated flight safety analysis that took into account outcomes of previously flown flights, population exposure risk, probability of failure of the vehicle, debris propagation and behavior, and other considerations. 

“The FAA is expanding the size of hazard areas both in the U.S. and other countries based on the updated flight safety analysis and because SpaceX intends to reuse a previously launched Super Heavy booster rocket for the first time,” the agency said. 

British officials had expressed concern to the U.S. about public safety in the Caribbean after the recent Starship tests, according to reporting by ProPublica. 

The FAA statement said it is in “close contact and collaboration with the United Kingdom, Turks & Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Mexico, and Cuba as the agency continues to monitor SpaceX’s compliance with all public safety and other regulatory requirements.”

SpaceX is required to maintain $500 in liability insurance, which the FAA confirmed to Via Satellite is the same amount as prior Starship launches. 

The two Starship failures were setbacks for the rocket program, and were covered in numerous mainstream media publications. 

A new poll of Americans released this week by Axios Harris showed that SpaceX is polling near the bottom of a list of 100 U.S.-based companies alongside SpaceX CEO and Founder Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla. SpaceX ranked 86th on the list, and Tesla ranked 95th.