SpaceX's Starship landing was 'one second away' from disaster
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, accidentally revealed a near-miss incident during a recent Starship flight test. The information was revealed in the background audio of a video game clip that Musk shared on X. In the clip, an unidentified SpaceX engineer can be heard discussing the close call with Musk. Joey Roulette, a space reporter from Reuters captured the conversation but it is still unclear when exactly this discussion took place.
Engineer reveals technical issues
"I want to be upfront about the scary stuff that happened," the unnamed SpaceX engineer said, as Musk appeared to be playing Diablo IV. The engineer explained a misconfigured component lacked the correct "ramp-up time for building spin pressure" on the booster. "We were a second away from it triggering an abort and causing the rocket to crash beside the tower," the engineer added. "Wow," Musk replied. "Yikes."
Additional problems encountered during descent
The engineer further revealed that another issue arose just before the booster's engine startup on its return to Earth. A cover on the skin of the booster, over some critical equipment, was torn off. He explained, "We wouldn't have predicted the exact right place, but this cover that ripped off was right on top of a bunch of single point failure valves that must work during landing burn."
Musk receiving briefing on 5th Starship test flight
Ambitious mission objectives for IFT-5
The Musk-engineer conversation centered on the fifth Starship integrated test flight, IFT-5, which launched on October 13. The test had established some of SpaceX's most ambitious mission objectives yet. These included returning the Super Heavy booster to the launch site and catching it with a pair of oversized "chopstick" arms extending from the launch tower. Despite the near-miss incident, SpaceX achieved these objectives successfully.
Approach to future Starship test flights
The engineer also touched upon SpaceX's strategy for future Starship test flights, highlighting a balance between speed and risk mitigation. He said the next test flight would be the first not scheduled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This is notable as SpaceX has often been ahead of the FAA in terms of launch readiness vs the regulator's launch license approval schedule. However, for IFT-5 and IFT-6, both approvals were granted simultaneously by the FAA.
