Last week, SpaceX announced that it is ready to launch the fully stacked Starship spacecraft for a first orbital flight test following a launch test this week and pending regulatory approval. Now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is confirming is ready, with launch “trending towards the end of the third week of April,” Musk wrote in a tweet on Monday.
Starship is SpaceX’s long-awaited flagship spacecraft that is designed to carry astronauts and payloads into deep space, including the Moon and, of course, Mars. Most importantly, the parts are designed to be reusable and is combined with a massive booster known as Super Heavy to lift it off the Earth’s surface.
SpaceX’s Starship is fully prepared for testing at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship had encountered many launch delays, including a major setback last summer when the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) determined there would be some environmental impact around the base.
But now all that’s left to get Starship and Super Heavy off the ground is a license from the FAA. “The FAA will make a licensing determination only after the agency is satisfied that SpaceX meets all licensing, safety, and other regulatory requirements,” an FAA spokesperson stated in an email. to The street.
According to the FAA Operations Plan Advicethe Super Heavy is scheduled to launch on April 17, with backup dates for each day thereafter until the 22nd. Sources communicating to Ars Technica says SpaceX is working closely with the FAA and the regulatory body is expected to eventually provide a license.
If the April 17 launch date does come true, that means SpaceX is only a week away from finally launching the Super Heavy, which has yet to be done. It is expected that, once launched, the Super Heavy and the Starship will separate, then the Super Heavy will head to the Gulf of Mexico while the Starship will travel to orbit. Soon after, Starship will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and make a vertical landing in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.
