SpaceX Starship Awaiting FAA License For Launch

SpaceX says its Starship/Super Heavy space transportation system is ready for its first orbital flight test once the FAA issues a launch license. 

“Starship is ready for launch. Awaiting regulatory approval,” SpaceX CEO and chief engineer Elon Musk tweeted April 9. “Starship launch [is] trending toward near the end of third week of April,” he added on April 10.

The company plans to conduct a launch rehearsal this week, SpaceX noted.

An FAA operations plan advisory, dated April 10, lists April 17 as the first launch opportunity for Starship from SpaceX’s privately owned spaceport near Brownsville, Texas, with backup launch opportunities April 18-23. The launch windows are 8 a.m-11:05 a.m. EDT on all days. 

Starship is a reusable, Mars-class vehicle with more than twice the thrust of NASA’s Saturn V and the Space Launch System Moon rockets. Starship customers include NASA, which plans to use the system to transport astronauts to and from lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface.

For its orbital flight test, SpaceX plans to launch the full-scale Ship 24 Starship upper-stage and Booster 7. About 2 min. after liftoff, the Super Heavy booster is designed to separate, turn around and attempt a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 mi. off the coast of Texas. 

The Starship upper stage will continue flying, passing over the Straits of Florida, for a 90-min. flight that is expected to end with a soft landing in the Pacific Ocean about 60 mi. northwest of Kauai, Hawaii.