SpaceX is targeting early December to launch its giant Starship rocket system into orbit for the first time, a pivotal demonstration flight as it aims to fly NASA astronauts to the moon in the next few years, a U.S. official said on Monday.
Billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX has sought for years to send its towering next-generation rocket system into orbit from the company's private launch facilities in Texas, where it has only launched prototypes of Starship's upper half some 6 miles high to demonstrate landing attempts.
The December mission will test the entire system for the first time, involving the company's 230-foot Super Heavy booster to lift the 160-foot Starship spacecraft into orbit. "We track four major Starship flights. The first one here is coming up in December, part of early December," Mark Kirasich, a senior NASA official overseeing development of the agency's Artemis moon program, said during a live-streamed NASA Advisory Council meeting.
The Super Heavy booster would return to land, while the orbital Starship spacecraft would re-enter Earth's atmosphere roughly 90 minutes later to splashdown dozens of miles off a Hawaiian coast, according to regulatory documents SpaceX filed last year. Further ground tests with the rocket and regulatory reviews could delay the debut orbital mission beyond December. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which oversees commercial launch site safety, has not yet granted a license for the mission to SpaceX, part of
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