Blue Origin launched the New Glenn for the first time on Jan. 15, 2025. Photo: Blue Origin

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closed mishap investigations into both the SpaceX Starship flight and Blue Origin New Glenn debut that both took place on Jan. 16, the agency announced Monday. 

While the FAA closed the mishap investigation regarding the Jan. 16 Starship flight, the rocket is still grounded because there is still an open mishap investigation into the following March 7 flight. 

“There were no public injuries and one confirmed report of minor vehicle damage in the Turks and Caicos Islands,” the FAA said in a statement on the Jan. 16 flight. 

The FAA reiterated SpaceX’s explanation for the issue in the January flight, that stronger vibrations put stress on hardware in the propulsion system and led to the failure. According to the FAA, SpaceX identified 11 corrective actions that were put in place for Flight 8. 

The FAA allowed Flight 8 to move forward while the mishap investigation for Flight 7 was still underway. Flight 8 also ended in an explosion. Both flights caused the FAA to activate temporary “debris response areas,” which happens when a space vehicle anomaly causes debris to fall outside of the closed aircraft hazard areas.

The FAA also closed its mishap investigation of Blue Origin’s first New Glenn flight, which took place in the early hours of Jan. 16. The mission successfully deployed Blue Origin’s own space logistics vehicle Blue Ring, but Blue Origin failed to recover the first stage booster, which triggered the mishap investigation. 

The FAA’s statement said there were no public injuries or public property damage. The first stage was not able to restart its engines, which prevented the reentry burn from occurring, and caused the loss of the stage. 

Blue Origin has identified seven corrective actions and the FAA will verify those have been implemented before the second mission. 

Blue Origin said in a statement on Monday the corrective actions focus on propellant management and engine bleed control improvements. Blue Origin is targeting a return to flight in late spring, and will attempt landing the booster again.