Question for the brain trust - would the FAA require an incident report and investigation this time around?
Certainly. Although the test may have been successful, the flight was not.
The
definition of mishap in the relevant CFR has been met on several counts, certainly 7 and 9 and possibly others:
(From US CFR Title 14, Chapter III, Subchapter A, Part 401)
Mishap means any event, or series of events associated with a licensed or permitted activity resulting in any of the following:
(1) A fatality or serious injury (as defined in 49 CFR 830.2);
(2) A malfunction of a safety-critical system;
(3) A failure of the licensee's or permittee's safety organization, safety operations, safety procedures;
(4) High risk, as determined by the FAA, of causing a serious or fatal injury to any space flight participant, crew, government astronaut, or member of the public;
(5) Substantial damage, as determined by the FAA, to property not associated with licensed or permitted activity;
(6) Unplanned substantial damage, as determined by the FAA, to property associated with licensed or permitted activity;
(7) Unplanned permanent loss of a launch or reentry vehicle during licensed activity or permitted activity;
(8) The impact of hazardous debris outside the planned landing site or designated hazard area; or
(9) Failure to complete a launch or reentry as planned as reported in § 450.213(b).
If no incident report then SpaceX would be free to launch a little sooner?
Even were that the case, I'm not convinced SpaceX's launch timelines have been much affected by the FAA reviews, no matter their public carping. They were going hammer and tongs to prepare for flights 1 and 2 right up until the licenses were granted, and while I've not paid attention in the past few weeks, as of a month ago, they didn't seem ready to launch flight 3.