FAA investigation into Starship's 8th flight cites Raptor engine for vehicle loss

STARBASE, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The Federal Aviation Administration has closed its investigation into Starship's eighth flight.

The FAA found that there are no reports of public injury or damage to public property from SpaceX's eighth flight on March 6.

SpaceX followers will recall that in SpaceX's eighth Starship flight, the Super Heavy booster was caught back at the Boca Chica launch site. However, a few minutes after, SpaceX reported that it lost contact with the Starship rocket.

An investigation into what happened to the rocket was led by SpaceX itself, and the FAA stated it oversaw and accepted the company's findings.

"The final mishap report cites the probable root cause for the loss of the Starship vehicle as a hardware failure in one of the Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition," the FAA stated.

SpaceX identified eight corrective actions to prevent a recurrence.

"The FAA verified that SpaceX implemented corrective actions prior to the Starship Flight 9 mission," the statement goes on.

An FAA investigation into Starship's ninth launch remains open.

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