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Regulators have given SpaceX the go - ahead to launch spaceship for the seventh time , although the company has not yet announced when that mission might take position .
While the exact launch particular date is unclear , SpaceX railroad engineer have been as interfering as ever at the company ’s massive launching internet site near Boca Chica , Texas . In recent days , the company performed test fires of the Super Heavy booster shot and the upper stage ( which is also prognosticate Starship ) , though the two stages have yet to be stacked at the launching towboat . The most recent spaceship test took position on November 19 withPresident - elect Donald Trumpas a guest .
The Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA ) tell SpaceX could launch multiple missionary station under the new approving , provide that the mission profile and vehicle configuration do n’t commute . This commission profile include another catch attack of the Super Heavy supporter — which SpaceX nailed for the first time in an October launch — and the Starship upper - stage vehicle perform a control urine landing in the Indian Ocean .
governor , working with SpaceX , also approved a handful of “ damage exceptions ” that would not trigger a bad luck investigation should they occur . These include things like failure of the upper degree ’s Raptor engine during the landing place burn or damage to the thermal shield or flap system on the fomite . These “ examination - bring on damage exceptions , ” as the FAA call them , will mean a warm regaining to launch allow for that these military issue do not cause serious injury to the populace or property .
This is the only time that the launch licence from the FAA has not been immediately follow by a launch date promulgation — and the regulator did not shy away from spotlight how chop-chop it travel the licence qualifying forward .
“ The FAA keep on to increase efficiencies in our licensing conclusion activity to meet the needs of the commercial-grade space transportation manufacture , ” FAA associate executive Kelvin B. Coleman said in a assertion . “ This license qualifying that we are issuing is well ahead of the Starship Flight 7 launching particular date and is another instance of the FAA ’s commitment to enable safe space transportation . ”
SpaceX has been more and more outspoken about its score with the governor , and many of its complaints have centered around the “ superfluous ” regulatory delays that have held up the Starship test program . In September , the company sound out in a lengthly web log postthat the licensing process for Starship has been “ repeatedly jump by consequence ranging from the frivolous to the evidently absurd . ”
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Starship is the gravid rocket ever built , stand at nearly 400 feet and generating around 3.3 million Egyptian pound of thrust at takeoff . It is the centerpiece of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk ’s ambition to make mankind multi - planetary . Musk has previously said that he ’s drive to set in motion an uncrewed spaceship to Mars as early as 2026 .
