JAKARTA - The moment you have been waiting for has finally arrived. If there are no obstacles, SpaceX will launch an orbital test flight of the Starship launch vehicle that will carry the spacecraft, Ship 24 next week.
SpaceX is developing a Starship to carry people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and its surroundings. The space transportation system consists of a major first-stage booster called the Super Heavy and top-level known as the Starship rocket, both designed to be fully reusable.
One source said all of them had been taken to the launch site in Boca Chica, Texas at the end of last week. The fastest launch will take place on April 10.
This is because Elon Musk's billionaire SpaceX is waiting for a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the first two weeks of this month. However, until the coveted license is issued, this rocket is not going anywhere.
Earlier this week, the company lifted the Super Heavy from its launch system to the launch seat on the runway. The next step will involve lifting the top of the Starship to its place, above the first stage. They must be placed on the launch pad before taking off.
Orbital test flights will try to send Ship 24 in one round around Earth, culminating in a landing in the Pacific Ocean near the island of Kauai in Hawaii.
Meanwhile, NASA is claimed to have backed up the use of the WB-57 high altitude aircraft for observations of the Starship test flight.
This is done because the space agency will use the Starship vehicle as a lunar lander for its astronauts on the Artemis mission.
SpaceX has been trying to conduct orbital test launches of its megarocket since the summer of 2021, with a series of static fire tests limited to the driving engine.
Then, the company successfully completed the first phase of the hot fire test for Super Heavy in early February. At that time, 31 of the 33 Raptor 2 rocket engines were on fire and burned properly.
SpaceX said its engineers had obtained enough data from testing to resume launch efforts next week, as quoted by Ars Technica, Thursday, April 6.
While waiting for the success of rocket test flights, the company plans to resume Starship's operational launch, starting with launching its next-generation Starlink satellite into orbit.
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