As expected, the FAA is requiring an investigation into Blue Origin’s New Glenn’s first stage failure during its descent towards an attempted landing in the Atlantic Ocean, and SpaceX’s Starship breakup over the Caribbean Seas. Both events occurred on January 16, 2025.
Blue Origin
During the debut flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, a failure that occurred sometime after staging resulted in a loss of the first stage, prior to the vehicle attempting to land on the drone ship ‘Jacklyn’. The ship was stationed East-Southeast of Cape Canaveral, about 600 miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean, but fell short.
Blue Origin’s webcast last showed the booster at an altitude of about 84,000 feet. Launch commentators had reported a re-ignition of the BE-4 engines that would be used to slow the first stage, but shortly afterwards, they reported they had lost contact with the vehicle. “We may very well have lost the booster,” a company commentator acknowledged as telemetry and video froze during descent. That assessment proved to be true, and the booster, nicknamed “So You’re Telling Me There’s A Chance” was lost.
While it is unlikely that any property or persons were placed in danger by the Blue Origin failure event, this is a normal requirement for any launch failure by a commercial launch provider that is not operating under a NASA or DoD launch license.
Thus far, Blue Origin has not made any statement regarding the investigation. Florida Media Now has reached out to Blue Origin for comment, but they have not replied at the time of this writing.
SpaceX
via X.com
SpaceX also had a mishap yesterday, with theirs probably being the most serious of the two. A few minutes after launching from Texas on Thursday, Starship exploded, creating a spectacle in the sky and forcing the FAA to require airline flights over the Gulf of Mexico to alter course to avoid falling debris. This is not the first FAA SpaceX investigation, but the previous investigations have been resolved in short order.
There are also reports that some debris landed on or near populated areas in the Turks & Caicos, a British Overseas Department southeast of The Bahamas in the Caribbean Sea. These reports are thus far unconfirmed, but if they are true they will be of great concern to the FAA:
As a result the FAA has also announced the requirement for an investigation into the mishap.
FAA Responsibilities
The FAA requires all commercial spaceflight operators to comply with regulations outlined in 14 CFR Part 450, which governs the licensing and operational requirements for launch and reentry activities. A failure during a launch triggers immediate protocols, including mandatory reporting to the FAA. Operators must notify the FAA within 24 hours of a mishap, defined as any event resulting in fatalities, serious injuries, or significant property damage. Incidents involving public safety, such as debris landing in unauthorized areas, also require immediate reporting.
The FAA oversees the mishap investigation process, ensuring operators adhere to safety and procedural requirements. The investigation team, often led by the operator and monitored by the FAA, examines the root causes of the failure. Detailed reports, including telemetry data, video evidence, and witness statements, must be submitted to the FAA for review. The agency may impose corrective actions or additional safety requirements to prevent similar incidents.
Additionally, the FAA ensures compliance with insurance and financial responsibility requirements under 51 U.S.C. § 50914. This includes compensation for third-party damages resulting from launch failures. Given that the failure was over the Atlantic Ocean, this is unlikely to apply to the case of the Blue Origin first stage failure.
How long those investigations will take is unknown at this time.
