SpaceX’s Starship No Longer Fully Reusable, Requires $548 Million Insurance Coverage

wccftech.com:

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

After considerable hype, SpaceX has received the launch license for its Starship test flight two and just like the first grant, the second license approval is limited to a single launch. It also comes with significant changes and requires SpaceX to work with the Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) to monitor its launch site and the surrounding area for potential contamination. The FAA's written revaluation of SpaceX's Starship environmental approval also reveals that Starship will no longer be fully reusable for the period at least since SpaceX will discard the hot staging ring in the ocean and not recover it after the flight.

The FAA shared approval details with the press late in the evening yesterday after an initial version of the document appeared on its website. In its water deluge system evaluation, the government agency shared that using such a system is common practice in the industry. It added that some of the features of the system improve the launch pad's suitability to the environment, and as part of the approval, SpaceX will have to monitor the surrounding site to ensure no contamination.

A key concern for the FWS officials when evaluating the deluge system was the amount of steel runoff. SpaceX's system is designed to release a maximum of 380,000 gallons of water into the surrounding area, and 3,000 additional gallons are part of a detonation system designed to prevent any accidents at the launch site due to methane buildup. A similar buildup led to a large fireball at the base of a Super Heavy booster during testing last year.

Since the steel plate of the deluge system is