JAKARTA - SpaceX can carry out Starship's first orbital flight test in the near future. On Thursday, April 6, the private company uploaded a new photo of a heavy space rocket at the Boca Chica facility, Texas.
"Starship is fully installed on Starbase," SpaceX said of the image. "The team is working towards launch training next week followed by Starship's integrated flight test within one week, awaiting regulatory approval."
On the same day, SpaceX owner Elon Musk offered a more aggressive schedule. "Starship is ready to launch next week, awaiting regulatory approval," he said on Twitter.
Starship is ready for launch 🚀Awaiting regulatory approval
— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023
The date of Starship's first orbital flight has changed for almost two years. In early February, a week after SpaceX successfully carried out its first rocket refueling test, Musk said the company would try to launch Starship in March if the remaining tests went well.
A few days later, SpaceX tried to do a fire test of all 33 vehicle first-stage Raptor engines, something never before tried.
The experiment was a critical step towards Starship's first orbital flight, although the rocket was not really successful in the test, with two machines failing before the end of testing.
However, the schedule shared by Musk this week may be too optimistic. According to Space.com, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) set a provisional launch window on April 17 for Starship. However, the outlet reported that the FAA had not yet granted SpaceX launch permits for the rocket, which would be needed before Starship could fly legally.
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