SpaceX’s giant starship could launch on its first-ever orbital test flight next month, but that schedule is far from certain.
A senior NASA official suggested that SpaceX plans to fly one of its Starship prototypes into space for the first time in December, according to Reuters (opens in new tab).
The agency is involved in the progress of Starship; NASA chose the giant rocket as the first manned lunar lander for its Artemis lunar exploration program. If all goes according to current plans, a spacecraft as part of the Artemis 3 mission will be launched near the south pole of the moon in 2025 or 2026.
“We are tracking four major Starship flights. The first one here is coming in December, some in early December,” said Mark Kirasich, associate associate administrator for Artemis campaign development, during a livestreamed NASA Advisory Board meeting on Monday (October 31). .
Related: This black and white photo of the SpaceX spacecraft looks like a famous vintage NYC construction photograph
No Starship prototype has flown since May 2021, and all previous outings have reached a maximum altitude of only about 10 kilometers. SpaceX’s desire to fly an orbital mission with Starship prompted a lengthy environmental review by the US Federal Aviation Administration, and there are still things to be done, Reuters reported.
This FAA review, dubbed the programmatic environmental review, examined Starship activity at Starbase, SpaceX’s facility near the south Texas town of Brownsville. The FAA completed the evaluation in June after numerous delays beginning in late 2021 due to consultation with other agencies and public comment to process. The FAA said this summer that SpaceX 75 must take action to reduce its environmental impact on the area.
Although SpaceX founder Elon Musk said several times that Starship would be ready to go into orbit soon — Musk recently said the target is November — it seems SpaceX isn’t quite done with these FAA action items.
An FAA spokesman told Reuters Monday that the agency will issue an orbital launch license “only after SpaceX has provided any outstanding information and the agency is able to fully analyze it.” The FAA provided no further information in the report about what issues are outstanding, and SpaceX did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
On photos: SpaceX stacks Starship and Super Heavy on launch pad before orbital test flight
The upcoming mission aims to hoist a 50 meter (165 ft) high prototype spacecraft into orbit on a Super Heavy Booster with a height of 70 m (230 ft). The Stacked Hardware is the tallest missile system ever. (Starship consists of Super Heavy and the Upper Tier Starship starship, both of which are reusable.)
SpaceX has already performed a series of static fire tests in 2022 to prepare Starship for the roughly 90-minute mission that would land off the coast of Hawaii if successful. However, it’s unclear how much prep work remains before SpaceX is ready to launch the mission.
SpaceX’s human landing system contract with NASA will require several successful spaceflight tests before Starship will be authorized to take astronauts to the moon. NASA is also looking for a second vendor for manned Artemis landing missions, however Other options will not be ready no earlier than Artemis 5, which will make SpaceX queue for landings Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 in about 2025 and 2027, depending on how previous missions go. The program’s first mission, the unmanned artemis 1, is scheduled to lift off on November 14.
Elizabeth Howell is co-author of “why am i taller (opens in new tab)?” (ECW Press, 2022; starring Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or Facebook (opens in new tab).
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