New Delhi, July 13 -- BOCA CHICA - The booster that was supposed to fly back to its launch tower fell instead into the Gulf of Mexico on May 22, ending what had otherwise been the most successful Starship test flight SpaceX had ever conducted. Eight weeks later, the Federal Aviation Administration has cleared the company to try again, as early as Thursday.

heat accumulated on propulsion system components during the ascent damaged hardware in ways that only became critical when the booster attempted to reignite for its return burn. The other was a software error: engine alarm system settings were miscalibrated, causing an engine to shut down that should have remained running.

Neither failure would have mattered in isolation. Together, th...