SpaceX's huge Starship rocket for eventual trips to the moon and Mars could
go orbital for the first time just two months from now, if all goes
according to plan.
SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and
beyond. The vehicle consists of two elements: a first-stage booster called
Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship.
Starship and Super Heavy are both designed to be completely and rapidly
reusable, and both will be powered by SpaceX's new Raptor engine — 33 for
Super Heavy and six for Starship. It's a challenge to build so many engines,
but SpaceX is on track to have enough for the first Starship orbital test
flight soon, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.
"We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month
to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test," Musk tweeted on
Monday (March 21).
That target is also dependent on the timely resolution of an environmental
review that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting of
Starship launch operations at Starbase, SpaceX's facility in South Texas.
That view is scheduled to wrap up by March 28, FAA officials have said.
SpaceX has performed a number of Starship test launches already, but those
have involved prototype upper-stage vehicles with a maximum of three Raptor
engines that flew just 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) high or so. The upcoming
orbital test flight will mark the first-ever launch of a Super Heavy as well
as the first liftoff of a six-engine Starship.
The Super Heavy booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico shortly after
liftoff. The Starship upper stage, meanwhile, will power its way to orbit,
circle our planet once, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean, near the
Hawaiian island of Kauai, if all goes according to plan.
The target timeline for the debut orbital Starship flight has shifted to the
right multiple times over the past year or so — hardly an unexpected
occurrence in the development of a new launch vehicle, especially one that
has not yet run the full regulatory gauntlet.