After three test flights, SpaceX has shown that the world’s most powerful rocket can reach space. Engineers must now demonstrate that the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle can return home.
That will be the central goal for Starship’s fourth test flight, which could happen as early as June, according to Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX.
“Starship 4 flight in about 2 weeks,” Musk posted on X, his social media platform, after a Starship countdown rehearsal on Monday at the Starship launch site in South Texas. “The main goal is to go through maximum reheat.”
Almost ready to fly
With Monday’s countdown, SpaceX completed one of the last major tests of the next Starship rocket before it’s ready for flight. The SpaceX launch team loaded more than 10 million pounds of super-cold methane and liquid oxygen into the Super Heavy booster and Starship’s upper stage.
The nearly 400-foot-tall (121-meter) rocket was fully lined up on its launch pad for the countdown rehearsal, which ended as planned before the booster’s 33 Raptor engines fired. SpaceX then drained cryogenic fuels from the rocket, and ground crews removed the Starship’s upper stage from the booster Tuesday for more work on the ship’s heat shield. A few days before launch, SpaceX will install the rocket’s self-destruct mechanism, which will be used to destroy the vehicle if it veers off course and threatens populated areas.
These are the last major tasks for the team at SpaceX’s Starbase facility before Starship is ready to take off on its fourth test flight. SpaceX is also awaiting a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is overseeing SpaceX’s internal review of Starship’s previous test flight in March.
The FAA classified the outcome of that flight as an accident, as the Starship lost control and broke up during re-entry before being able to make a targeted, intact splashdown in the Indian Ocean. For SpaceX, the March flight was a resounding success. It was the first time a Starship test flight reached near-orbital speeds with full burn of all 39 Raptor engines on the rocket’s first and second stages.
After Starship’s first and second test flights last year, the FAA withheld a launch license for the next flight until regulators reviewed all the results of SpaceX’s investigation into what went wrong on the previous mission. The FAA is responsible for ensuring that commercial space launches do not endanger the public.
Stephen Clark / Ars Technica
Last week, an FAA spokesman said SpaceX had asked regulators to approve the next launch of Starship before the official conclusion of the investigation into the March test flight incident. Instead, SpaceX asked the FAA to approve the next launch after determining that the events of the previous flight did not put the public at risk. This can speed up the licensing process.
“If the FAA agrees that the accident is not related to public safety concerns, the operator may return to flight while the accident investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met,” the FAA spokesman said.
SpaceX is already testing hardware for several rockets scheduled to fly later this year, positioning the company to increase Starship launches. The company is also building a second launch pad in Texas and plans two Starship launch sites in Florida to support a faster launch cadence.
But there’s still a lot SpaceX needs to iron out with the Starship design before it goes live.
