Starship Yet To Get Regulatory Clearance For Upcoming Flight But Elon Musk's SpaceX Hopeful For Friday Launch

Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company SpaceX said on Monday that it made several hardware and operational changes to its Starship launch vehicle after the mishap in January and ahead of its upcoming flight test expected on Friday.

What Happened: For the upcoming test flight on Friday, SpaceX is eyeing Starship’s first payload deployment and experiments aimed at returning the upper stage of the two-stage vehicle to the launch site for catch. The company will also attempt to return and catch the vehicle’s Super Heavy booster, failing which it will have a soft splashdown in the Gulf of America.

SpaceX will attempt to deploy four Starlink simulators on its next flight, similar in size to the next generation of Starlink satellites.

SpaceX last launched Starship on Jan. 16. The spacecraft lifted off from Starbase in Texas at 4:37 p.m. CT, and the vehicle booster landed back at the launch site after separation from its first stage.

The spacecraft, however, disintegrated in space during the flight test owing to a propellant leak. The spacecraft was carrying 10 Starlink simulators, which were similar in size and weight to the company’s next-generation Starlink satellites, as payload. The FAA subsequently ordered an investigation into the incident following reports of public property damage in Turks and Caicos.

Why It Matters: SpaceX on Monday said that it immediately reached out to the government of Turks and Caicos and worked with them and the United Kingdom to coordinate recovery and cleanup efforts after the mishap in January.

The company is working with the FAA to either close the mishap investigation or get a green light for its next Starship flight, it said. Provided regulatory approval, the company is looking to launch the vehicle again on Friday.

The upcoming test flight would be Starship’s eighth to date and second this year. SpaceX started testing Starship in April 2023.

The Starship vehicle is part of big dreams. While NASA is looking forward to landing humans back on the surface of the Moon after a gap of over 50 years with the help of a custom version of Starship, Musk is dreaming of taking humans to the planet Mars aboard Starship. However, the vehicle is currently in the testing and development phase.

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Photo courtesy: SpaceX