SpaceX reassigned roughly 20% of the Falcon 9 engineering group for six months to work on Starship after a fueling-test explosion. The reassignment aims to improve Starship reliability, component testing and production rate. A pressurized bottle holding gaseous nitrogen was damaged during the August test, causing it to fail and lead to an explosion during fueling. In three test launches this year, two exploded prematurely and a third failed to deploy its test satellites and spun out of control on return. SpaceX previously redeployed staff to address engineering problems at Boring Co. and to help ramp up Tesla Model 3 production, raising scrutiny of Starship's prospects despite SpaceX's successes with Starlink and reusable rockets.
When one of SpaceX's Starship vehicles burst into flames during a routine fueling test in June, the Elon Musk-led company decided it was time to bring in reinforcements. Shortly after the incident, roughly 20% of the engineering group working on the company's flagship Falcon 9 program were reassigned for six months to Starship, a reusable rocket Musk hopes will someday carry humans back to the moon and to Mars, according to people familiar with the company's planning.
SpaceX and Musk have a history of tackling engineering problems by throwing additional staff at them: Last year, Boring Co. staff were flown to Las Vegas to get its Prufock machine back online following water damage, according to people familiar with the matter. In 2018, employees of Tesla Inc., Musk's car company, were flown in from across the country to California to help ramp up production of the Model 3.
The added muscle for Starship is intended to help improve the craft's reliability and individual component testing, as well as the rate at which the company can produce more of the rockets, one of the people said. SpaceX revealed in August that a pressurized bottle holding gaseous nitrogen had been damaged, causing it to fail and lead to an explosion during fueling. The test-stand incident was the latest in a series of recent setbacks for Starship.
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