SpaceX Starship SN10 Prototype Safety Analysis: A Case Study on Organization’s Needs Management

Abstract

This study addresses the inadequacy of conventional failure analyses, which, in addition to regulatory and customer requirements, often neglect organizational needs. It emphasizes the importance of a systemic approach to mitigating hazards in complex space program management. This article proposes a new approach to addressing security issues that adds the management of security-related organizational needs to systemic engineering analysis. The case study of the catastrophic event involving SpaceX’s Starship SN10 prototype used publicly available information to build the system-theoretic accident model and processes (STAMP) model and identify organizational needs. The causal analysis based on systems theory (CAST) method was then applied to identify possible causes. Finally, the system-theoretic process analysis (STPA) method was used to determine design-related organizational needs and formulate recommendations for the design of the autogenous pressurization system. The presented method considered organizational needs to identify the key elements involved in the accident, the primary causes, and the actions to mitigate the associated hazards. This study proposed that managing organizational needs for system safety requires recognizing the current situation and constructing prospective scenarios to prevent failures, while emphasizing the importance of management’s proactive measures, clear responsibilities, and active involvement of all members to ensure system reliability.