Seven months after its first attempt to reach space ended with an explosion, SpaceX’s next-generation spacecraft Starship was set for blastoff on Saturday for a repeat test flight from south Texas. But it still needs to be made clear when the company will fly Starship with people aboard or if it ever will.
On April 20, the giant rocket’s Super Heavy first stage burned up in a spectacular explosion that carved a crater a few meters deep beneath the launch pad at SpaceX’s Starbase site on the Gulf of Mexico near Boca Chica, a hamlet about 300 miles from Houston. The explosion caused a fireball that rattled nearby residents and sent boulders, sand, and dust flying for miles. It also shattered the launch tower and sent smoke into the sky. The uncrewed test flight will be the second time Starship is launched, and this time, it should be carrying something — perhaps a satellite for SpaceX or one of its commercial customers. The company isn’t revealing what it will send up, but it says the test mission is “a big step toward verifying all systems needed for future flights of Starship.”
Elon Musk has said SpaceX plans to make its first trip around the planet with people aboard by 2024. But the company still has to demonstrate that its Starship rocket can be ready by then, and it must overcome several other hurdles, including building a habitat for those passengers and developing a system for providing them with oxygen and food.
SpaceX had planned to try again for a test flight in September. Still, the Federal Aviation Administration will only grant it a license once it closes an investigation of the explosion and takes corrective action. That delay, which prompted an outcry from former NASA administrator William Gerstenmaier, has stalled progress on the rocket’s development.
Despite the snag, SpaceX plans to conduct its test in the same spot where the company has stacked Starship since August. The Starship stack consists of the 230-foot-tall, 33-engine Super Heavy booster and the 164-foot-tall Starship spacecraft mounted on top. It will be the most extensive version of the rocket and spacecraft to have flown, though it won’t be the tallest or most powerful.
The Starship-Super Heavy combination will be able to send a cargo ship into orbit and eventually carry crews to the moon and beyond. After separating from Starship, the booster will perform a flip and then return to Earth, landing on the ocean floor of Hawaii.
The uncrewed launch was scheduled for a 20-minute window beginning at 7 a.m. CST (1300 GMT). SpaceX’s website indicates that it will post a video of the flight. The company’s previous test launch lasted just four minutes. It was supposed to be the first of many test launches from the site, intended to replace Cape Canaveral as the nation’s main spaceport. But it’s likely to attract fewer spectators than the iconic launches from Florida, which typically draw thousands of fans.