After three test flights, SpaceX has shown that the world’s most powerful rocket can reach space. Now engineers must show that the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle can return home.
This will be the central target for the fourth Starship test flight, which could take place as early as early June, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.
“Starship Flight 4 in about two weeks,” Musk posted on his social media platform X after a Starship countdown rehearsal on Monday at the Starship launch site in South Texas. “The main goal is to survive maximum reentry warming.”
Almost ready to fly
With Monday’s exercise countdown, SpaceX completed one of the last major tests of the next Starship rocket before it is ready for flight. SpaceX’s launch team loaded more than 10 million pounds of supercold methane and liquid oxygen propellants into the Starship’s Super Heavy booster and upper stage.
The nearly 400-foot (121-meter) rocket was fully stacked on its launch pad for the countdown rehearsal, which ended as planned before the launcher’s 33 Raptor engines ignited. SpaceX then drained cryogenic fuel from the rocket and ground teams removed the Starship upper stage from the launch vehicle on Tuesday to carry out further work on the ship’s heat shield. A few days before launch, SpaceX will install the rocket’s self-destruct mechanism, which would serve to destroy the vehicle if it flies off course and threatens populated areas.
These are the last major tasks for the team at SpaceX’s Starbase facility before Starship is ready for its fourth test flight. SpaceX is also awaiting a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is overseeing SpaceX’s internal review of its previous Starship test flight in March.
The FAA ruled the outcome of this flight a mishap because the spacecraft lost control during re-entry and disintegrated before landing safely in the Indian Ocean. For SpaceX, the March flight was a complete success. It was the first time a Starship test flight reached near orbital velocity, with all 39 Raptor engines in the rocket’s first and second stages firing for the entire duration.
After the first and second Starship test flights last year, the FAA denied a launch license for the next flight until regulators could review all of the results of SpaceX’s investigation into failures on the previous mission. The FAA is responsible for ensuring that commercial space launches do not endanger the public.
Stephen Clark/Ars Technica
Last week, an FAA spokesman said SpaceX had asked regulators to approve the next Starship launch before the investigation into the test flight mishap in March was formally completed. Instead, SpaceX asked the FAA to approve the next launch after determining that the events of the previous flight did not pose a danger to the public. This could speed up the licensing process.
“If the FAA agrees that the accident did not cause public safety issues, the operator may resume the flight while the investigation into the accident is ongoing, provided all other licensing requirements are met,” the FAA spokesman said.
SpaceX is already testing hardware for several rockets scheduled to fly later this year, positioning the company to move forward with the Starship launch. The company is also building a second launch pad in Texas and plans two Starship launch sites in Florida to enable a faster launch frequency.
But there’s a lot more that SpaceX needs to iron out about the Starship design before it’s ready for use.