Tag: Starship vehicle

FAA May Grant Launch License for Starship by October

CNN reports that the FAA says it is “optimistic” that it “could allow SpaceX to launch its mega rocket, Starship, by the end of October.” Starship has been “grounded since its inaugural test flight in April ended when the rocket – the most powerful launch vehicle ever built – exploded over the Gulf of Mexico.” Last week, the FAA “said it had completed its safety investigation into the explosion and laid out 63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to obtain a launch license from the agency.” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “posted on social media on Sunday that the company had completed and documented 57 ‘required’ actions out of a list of 63.” He also has “posted pictures of the rocket fully stacked and ready on the launchpad, which lies due east of Brownsville, Texas, on the state’s southernmost tip.” The FAA “said the corrective actions also must pass an environmental review.”
Full Story (CNN)

Starship Award Part of $4 Billion in NASA Flights

CNBC reports that right before Artemis I lifted off from Cape Canaveral, “NASA announced an additional Starship award under the lunar Artemis program. SpaceX is now on tap for about $4 billion worth of Starship flights for NASA – an uncrewed demonstration mission and the two crewed landings during Artemis 3 and 4 – and it’s clearly crunch time for the company.” SpaceX still has a ways to go, however, with the Federal Aviation Administration saying that the company still needs to provide the regulatory agency with more information on the “environmental mitigations that the regulator outlined in June.”
Full Story (CNBC)

SpaceX Prepares Starship for Test Flight

The Hill reports that the first launch “of SpaceX’s massive rocket, called Starship, could be coming soon.” The company shared “a series of photos highlighting the vehicle’s progress ahead of its highly anticipated test flight.” Starship consists “of two major components: a massive first-stage booster called the ‘Super Heavy’ and an upper stage known as ‘Starship.’” In typical SpaceX fashion, “both aspects of the craft are designed to be fully reusable.” The company has been “working its way towards the program’s first orbital test flight, which CEO Elon Musk says is coming soon, and could take place as soon as the end of February.”
Full Story (The Hill)

SpaceX’s Starship to Launch Private Moon Rover in 2026

SPACE reported that Astrolab has secured an agreement with SpaceX to launch its Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover on one of SpaceX’s Starship moon missions. The mission could occur as early as 2026. FLEX would be the largest rover ever to operate on the moon’s surface. The rover would be able to carry two astronauts and could alternately be remote-controlled. Astrolab built FLEX “within NASA’s requirements for the agency’s Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) specifications, and hopes to have an entire FLEX fleet roving the moon’s surface as part of the Artemis program.”
Full Story (SPACE)

Musk: SpaceX Could Use Starship to Collect Space Debris

The Hill reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “says the private rocket company’s Starship rocket system could be used to collect space junk orbiting the Earth.” Musk tweeted Saturday that the Starship could fly “around space & chomp up debris with the moving fairing door.” According to SpaceX, “the Starship’s fairing door opens when it reaches a certain orbit to deploy a payload and closes before returning to Earth.” Last year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell “told Time Magazine Starship could possibly store space junk in its cargo bay until returning to Earth.”
Full Story (The Hill)

Shotwell: SpaceX Aiming for First Orbital Launch of Starship In July

Space News reported that SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell “says the company is ‘shooting for July’ for the first orbital launch of the company’s Starship vehicle despite lacking the regulatory approvals needed for such a launch.” At the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference on Friday, Shotwell said that the company was “hoping” to conduct the launch in July, “but we all know this is difficult. We are really on the cusp of flying that system, or at least attempting the first orbital flight of that system, in the very near term.” SpaceX “last flew a Starship prototype May 5, with the SN15 vehicle flying to an altitude of 10 kilometers before making a successful landing.” Although SpaceX “originally appeared to be planning a second suborbital flight of that vehicle, it instead moved the vehicle from the launch pad. Another Starship prototype, SN16, has remained at the production site.”
Full Story (Space News)

FAA Delays Starship Environmental Review Completion

Space News reported that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) “has again delayed completion of an environmental assessment for orbital launches of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle from Texas, although it may have no effect on near-term launch plans.” The FAA “announced March 25 that it had pushed back the expected completion of the final Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA) of Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches from Boca Chica, Texas, by another month.”
Full Story (Space News)

Starship Could Get Humans to the Moon

The Guardian (UK) reports that SpaceX’s Starship is to conduct its first orbital test launch next month. Starship “is seen by many as a pathway back to the moon for the first time in half a century and maybe the first vehicle to eventually land humans on Mars.”
Full Story (The Guardian)