SpaceX is eyeing March 14 for its next Starship test flight

SpaceX aims to launch its massive Starship rocket for the third time on March 14, the company has confirmed In a post on social media Wednesday.

SpaceX is still awaiting regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for the launch, without which the spacecraft will remain grounded. But although the FAA had not yet given SpaceX the green light for the next mission, there were indications that the company was expecting to get one soon. Just last weekend, teams at the Starbase facility in southwest Texas completed critical “wetsuit” training for the launch, loading the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket with more than 10 million pounds of propellant and rehearsing the countdown sequence to T- minus. 10 seconds.

The FAA also confirmed late last month that it had done so I completed the investigation On SpaceX’s second Starship launch, regulators said at the time that the company must complete 17 “corrective actions” before issuing a revised launch license. Provided it gets sealed within the next week or so, the company should set a target date of March 14.

SpaceX conducted the first orbital flight test of the Starship vehicle last April. There was a gap of seven months between him and the second test, which took place last November. Both ended with mid-air explosions of the Super Heavy booster and upper stage (which is also called the Starship). Despite these disastrous conclusions, the second test went significantly further than the first, with the company demonstrating a number of key technologies that it was unable to implement the first time.

The company is no doubt hoping to maintain that trend, though, as this third test presents a set of new and very ambitious goals, including demonstrating fuel transfer during the launch phase of the spacecraft’s upper stage and the first restart of a Raptor engine in space. . Transporting fuel in particular is a key capability the company must master to complete its multi-billion-dollar missions to the Moon for NASA.

For the most part, the next launch will have the same basic mission profile. If all goes as planned, the order of operations should go like this: Shortly after launch, the super-heavy booster will separate from the spacecraft using a new “hot staging” separation technique that involves lighting the upper stage of its engines to propel the rocket away. Supporter. This booster will then complete a “rear booster burn,” similar to how Falcon 9 boosters return to Earth, dropping into the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft’s upper stage will continue its ascent into orbit. Once it reaches orbital speed, it will cut off its engine and circumnavigate almost the entire globe before also landing in the ocean. Unlike the first two missions, this time the company will fly a new trajectory that will land the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean (as opposed to the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii), to try to restart the Raptor’s engine in space.

SpaceX confirms on its website that this mission is part of a test program to enable the company to collect data about the vehicle’s performance in a real flight environment.

“This rapid, iterative development approach has been the foundation for all of SpaceX’s major innovative developments, including Falcon, Dragon, and Starlink,” the company says. “Iterative improvement is essential as we work to build a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, helping humanity return to the Moon, and ultimately traveling to Mars and beyond.”