The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has issued a launch license to SpaceX for the Starship orbital flight test, which could now take place as soon as Monday.
The long-awaited launch license came at the very end of business on Friday.
“After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements,” the administration said in a statement.
This was the final regulatory hurdle facing SpaceX. Now, the company is authorized to conduct the orbital flight test as soon as its ready. This will mark the first time that the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage (also called Starship) fly together. Assuming lift-off is nominal, the plan is for stage separation to occur roughly three minutes into the mission, with the booster and upper stage splashing down into the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean, respectively. SpaceX will not attempt to recover these components.
On its website, SpaceX makes no promises for how the test will go, or even if it will complete milestones like Max Q (the point of maximum pressure on the vehicle) or Starship ignition. Instead, its likely that the company is looking to simply gather as much flight data as it can as the company continues to iterate the Starship system.
“With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship,” the company says on its website.
Developing…
toptechtrends.com/2023/04/14/faa-grants-launch-license-to-spacex-clearing-way-for-starship-orbital-flight-test/”>FAA grants launch license to SpaceX, clearing way for Starship orbital flight test by toptechtrends.com/author/aria-alamalhodaei/”>Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on toptechtrends.com/”>TechCrunch
About The Author
