| | | SpaceX eyes March 14 for 3rd Starship test flight
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By Brett Tingley
published 2 days ago
We could see Starship fly again as soon as next week.
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The next test flight of SpaceX's Starship rocket could come as soon as next week.
SpaceX is targeting March 14 for the third flight test of its Starship vehicle, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) the company quietly published announcing a livestream of the launch. Starship somewhat confusingly consists of two parts: The stainless-steel reusable upper stage known also as Starship, and its Super Heavy first-stage booster. Together, the two stand over 400 feet tall (122 meters).
The company recently performed a critical fueling test on March at its Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas. During the test, over 10 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen were pumped into the rocket. "Starship Flight 3 preparing for launch," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in a post on X accompanying photos of the fueling test. You can watch the test here at Space.com, when the time comes, courtesy of SpaceX.
Related: SpaceX fuels up massive Starship megarocket in test for 3rd launch (photos)
Starship and Super Heavy are designed to be fully reusable. Together, they are the world's most powerful rocket and are capable of launching up to 165 tons (150 metric tons) into orbit.
NASA selected Starship to land astronauts on the moon during its upcoming Artemis 3 mission scheduled for no earlier than 2026. But Starship still has a few hurdles to clear before that can happen. For one, it needs to reach orbit first. On the rocket's first two test flights, one in April 2023 and another in November 2023, Starship failed to do so.
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Following that second test flight, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified 17 corrective actions for SpaceX to take before the next flight: 10 on Starship and seven on the Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX has completed those, according to a Feb. 26 statement, noting that the company has "implemented hardware changes on upcoming Starship vehicles to improve leak reduction, fire protection, and refined operations associated with the propellant vent to increase reliability."
space.com
SpaceX eyes March 14 for next Starship test launch
Two previous Starship test flights have ended in spectacular explosions, though the company has adopted an approach of rapid trial and error in order to accelerate development .
Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday announced it was eyeing March 14 as the earliest date for the next test launch of its giant Starship rocket, with which it hopes to one day colonize Mars.
Two previous attempts have ended in spectacular explosions, though the company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approach in order to accelerate development.
"The third flight test of Starship could launch as soon as March 14, pending regulatory approval," SpaceX posted on X, the social media platform also owned by Musk.
A statement on its website said the rocket, to launch from Boca Chica, Texas, would splash down in the Indian Ocean.
NASA's plans to return US astronauts to the moon in 2026 hinge on a modified version of Starship being certified and ready for use as a lander.
When the two stages of Starship are combined, the rocket stands 397 feet (121 meters) tall—beating the Statue of Liberty by a comfortable 90 feet.
Its Super Heavy Booster produces 16.7 million pounds (74.3 Meganewtons) of thrust, almost double that of the world's second most powerful rocket, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS)—though the latter is now fully operational.
SpaceX was forced to blow up Starship during its first test flight four minutes after launch in April 2023, because the two stages failed to separate.
The rocket disintegrated into a ball of fire and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, sending a dust cloud over a town several miles (kilometers) away.
The second test in November 2023 fared better: the booster separated from the spaceship, but both then exploded over the ocean.
The Federal Aviation Administration closed a probe into the incident last month after identifying 17 corrective actions SpaceX would be required to take before it can receive its next greenlight.
SpaceX's "rapid iterative development" strategy has paid off for the company in the past and its other rockets have come to be heavily relied upon by NASA and the private sector.
But the clock is ticking down for Starship to be ready for NASA's moon missions, and the United States risks falling behind rival China which is aiming to land humans there in 2030.
Not only does SpaceX need to show it can launch, fly and land Starship safely. It will eventually also need to show it can send multiple "Starship tankers" into orbit to refuel, at supercooled temperatures, a main Starship holding in Earth orbit for the onward journey to the moon.
© 2024 AFP
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