Finally happened! FAA completed safety review for 2nd Starship OFT. New launch date…

Fantastic! For the first time in the Starship journey, the FAA has finally kept its promise. That's right, folks, we're starting the month of November with some real good news. Specifically, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced yesterday on the 31st of October – Happy Halloween, by the way – that it has wrapped up its Starship Safety Review, which assesses the risks that a launch might pose to public health and property. Following this, SpaceX's highly-anticipated second test flight of its Starship Super Heavy Lift rocket was one step closer to liftoff from South Texas. The agency issued a brief statement noting this portion of the assessment wrapped up on October 31st. It describes the Safety Review as being focused on issues that affect public health and safety of property. It consists of evaluating the applicant's safety organization, system safety processes, flight safety analysis, and quantitative risk criteria for a launch, re-entry, and vehicle disposal, the FAA stated. Now, the biggest outstanding piece of the equation before the second integrated flight test is the environmental review, which is being done in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the FWS for short. The FAA is continuing to work on the environmental review, the agency wrote today in an emailed statement. As part of its environmental review, the FAA is consulting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on an updated biological assessment under the Endangered Species Act. The FAA and the U.S. FWS must complete this consultation before the environmental review portion of the license evaluation is completed. On October 5th, the FAA sent its final biological assessment to the FWS. The latter agency had up to 30 days to review that document, but announced that it finished that review on the 19th of October, and it re-initiated its formal Endangered Species Act consultation with the FAA. That process is allotted 135 days by statute. But similarly to the biological assessment review, the FWS stated on October 26th that it does not expect to take the full amount of time. That 135 days breaks down into two main buckets as part of the agency's ESA Section 7 consultation process. The first part is the formal consultation, which can take up to 90 days. This is the period where the FAA and the FWS share information about the proposed project and the species or critical habitat likely to be affected. The last half of the process is craft a biological opinion, which could take up to 45 days. A biological opinion usually includes conservation recommendations to further the recovery of listed species, and it may also include reasonable and prudent measures as needed to minimize any take of listed species. In a statement on Tuesday, an FAA spokesperson also confirmed, The environmental review is the last major element to complete before the FAA makes a license determination. The ongoing review apparently centers on the potential impacts of a water deluge system, which SpaceX installed beneath Starbase's orbital launch mount after the April test flight. The new system is designed to protect the mount from the destructive power of Super Heavy's 33 Raptor engines, which was on full display on the April 20th test flight, where the Raptors blasted out a big crater beneath the mount, sending chunks of concrete and other debris raining down on Starbase and the surrounding area. We should expect Starship to fly relatively soon after the environmental review wraps up, provided everything goes well. Fingers crossed, the potential launch is scheduled for the third week of November, or could it be on the 20th? SpaceX and its founder and CEO Elon Musk have said that the latest vehicle has passed all of its pre-launch tests and is ready to go. The licensing process, both the FAA and the environmental consultation with the FWS, has been a source of frustration for SpaceX. Starship has been ready for its next flight test for more than a month, but we are waiting for an FAA license and accompanying interagency review, said Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president for build and flight reliability, at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee on October 18th. He called for a faster review of license proposals, particularly for projects of national interest, referencing Starship's role as a lunar lander for NASA's Artemis lunar exploration campaign. When it comes to projects of national interest, such as the Artemis program, Congress should establish a regulatory regime consistent with the national program objectives and schedules. Other government agencies that participate in AST licensing, like those with environmental responsibilities, should also be required to complete their work consistent with the national program schedules. And with no further delay, the FAA deserves a compliment this time, right? In another important announcement yesterday, the Space Systems Command announced that 21 launch missions have been assigned to the United Launch Alliance and SpaceX as part of the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 contract that the companies won back in 2020. These missions assigned for fiscal year of 2024 mark the fifth and final year of the Phase 2 contract. Of the 21 missions, ULA received 11, and SpaceX, 10. These missions are projected to launch over the next two to three years. Over the five years of the Phase 2 contract, the Space Force will have ordered a total of 48 missions, substantially more than the 34 missions originally estimated, although only one has launched so far. Under our Phase 2 contract, the ULA and SpaceX have been committed partners, and our combined team remains dedicated to delivery of critical assets to our warfighters as we complete this phase of the NSSL program and embark on NSSL Phase 3 starting in the fiscal year of 2025, said Colonel Chad Malone, Senior Material Leader for Mission Solutions at the Space Systems Command. Of the 48 missions assigned for Phase 2, only USSF-67 launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in January of 2023. ULA's first Phase 2 launch will be USSF-51 on an Atlas V rocket, a mission projected for no earlier than March 2024. SpaceX's upcoming NSSL missions include USSF-52, which was awarded back in 2018 and not part of Phase 2, and USSF-124, a Missile Defense Agency mission that is part of the Phase 2 contract. The ULA's new rocket, the Vulcan Centaur, was selected by the Space Force to launch all Phase 2 missions, but the vehicle has been beset by delays. Vulcan's two certification flights are scheduled in the coming months, and its first NSSL Phase 2 mission, USSF-106, would fly sometime after both certification launches are completed. The ULA originally won 60% of the Phase 2 missions, and SpaceX, 40%. Based on these latest assignments, the ULA ended up with 54%, and SpaceX with 46%. Again, the ULA will now have 11 missions, while SpaceX has 10. And finally, for a post-Halloween day, let's enjoy the ghostly view of a stellar explosion whose remains resemble a skeleton hand in deep space taken by NASA's newest X-ray space telescope. The ghostly hand, formerly known as MSH-15-52, was created by the death of a massive star. This catastrophic event, called a supernova explosion, left behind a fast-spinning, super-dense stellar corpse known as a pulsar. Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that have strong magnetic fields which create powerful jets of charged particles and intense wind that form what is known as a pulsar wind nebula. The pulsar PSR-B1509-58 is located near the center of the image, or the base of the palm, of MSH-15-52, and injects particles into space, creating a glowing shape that resembles a human hand, according to a statement from NASA. Using NASA's imaging X-ray polarimetry explorer, which launched in December of 2021, scientists observed MSH-15-52 for about 17 days, revealing new details about the pulsar's magnetic field and the orientation of its X-ray jets, also known as X-ray polarization. The IXPE data gives us the first map of the magnetic field in the hand. Roger Romani, lead author of the study from Stanford University in California, said in the statement, The charged particles producing the X-rays travel along the magnetic field, determining the basic shape of the nebula, like the bones do in a person's hand. The space telescope showed that the amount of polarization is remarkably high in large regions of MSH-15-52, suggesting there is little turbulence in those regions of the pulsar wind nebula. This creates straight and uniform magnetic field lines, seen in the fingers and thumb, whereas complex turbulent regions give particles an energy boost, which can be seen in the distinct bright X-ray jet near the wrist of the hand-shaped structure, according to the statement. We've uncovered the life history of super-energetic matter and antimatter particles around the pulsar. Niccolo De Laia, co-author of the study, said in the statement, This teaches us about how pulsars can act as particle accelerators. MSH-15-52, which is located 16,000 light-years from Earth, was first observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 2001. Well, folks, that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for watching, and if you want to support us even further, hop on over to our Patreon. Link is in the description below. Become a patron and you can get access to exclusive content. Nevertheless, we appreciate your generosity and your passion for space exploration. As always, this is Kevin from GreatSpaceX, and until next time, keep looking up!