It’s been over a year and a half since we’ve seen a prototype of SpaceX’s next-gen Starship spacecraft flieswith its first flight with a Super Heavy rocket was perpetually pushed back during this time.
Musk, who also currently runs Tesla and Twitter, tweeted on Saturday that he hopes Starship’s first orbital flight could take place as soon as next month.
“We have a real chance at the end of February. A March launch attempt seems very likely,” he wrote.
SpaceX launched a series of high-altitude Starship flights in 2020 and 2021 that saw a three-engine version of the spacecraft fly to the stratosphere and back for a series of landing attempts that all ended in explosions, at except for the last successful attempt on May 5, 2021.
We have a real hit at the end of February. The March launch attempt seems highly likely.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2023
Shortly after, SpaceX announced it would shift gears to begin producing more Raptor engines, testing prototype Super Heavy boosters, and preparing for Starship’s first orbital launch. The plan is for Starship to take off from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas atop Super Heavy, which will return for landing on a pad in the Gulf of Mexico after separation while the Starship vehicle continues for a quick trip. in orbit followed by a landing in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii.
The flight plan was stalled by a number of delays, largely related to the process of obtaining a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration. The company’s application first had to go through a months-long environmental review process, concluding with the agency allow the mission to move forward but forcing SpaceX to make dozens of changes to its launch plan.
The company still hasn’t obtained launch clearance from the FAA as it works on the required changes while simultaneously continuing to manufacture and test Raptor engines and prepare Super Heavy for its first launch.
The next Starship flight has only been a month or two since June 2022, when the FAA announced its decision, and this latest update continues that pattern.
SpaceX isn’t the only party interested in seeing Starship fly again. NASA selected it to be one of the vehicles it flies to the moon as part of the Artemis program to bring astronauts back to the lunar surface this decade.
