In a unique move in spaceflight, SpaceX is conducting a test flight campaign that does not decelerate its rockets. Other space agencies, including NASA, fully develop unique flight equipment before testing it in the real world. This is not the case with SpaceX, which is launching prototypes that are born to die. “Each of these flight tests is just that: an experiment,” SpaceX said in a statement. A pre-release report, In it he was protected from any mishap. “They are not carried out in a laboratory or on a test bench, but in an aircraft environment to enhance learning.”
The results are spectacular and violent. The first integrated launch of a Starship spacecraft, in April 2023, ended when the stages failed to separate, causing it to self-destruct four minutes after liftoff. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the concrete wreckage landed in a nature reserve, about 10 kilometers from the launch pad. The second flight, in November 2023, made significant progress, but the booster exploded during a planned landing in the Gulf of Mexico. Eight minutes later, at an altitude of 150 kilometers, the upper stage of the starship caught fire and exploded as the ship ejected excess liquid oxygen.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires these flights to continue to make safety changes and SpaceX has complied. The company listed the changes as including “hardware changes to upcoming Starship vehicles to improve leakage reduction, fire safety and refinement of fuel vent-related functions to increase reliability.” FAA He gave permission on Wednesday For the launch, “SpaceX met all safety, environmental, political and fiscal responsibility requirements”
The flight paves the way for more launches, and SpaceX's Starship campaign accelerates. FAA Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation Kelvin Coleman told reporters on February 23 The company has requested nine flights from its Starbase in South Texas this year alone. “It's a lot of pitches,” Coleman said; “We're continuing to talk to SpaceX and meet and try to figure out how to do that. We owe it to the company, so we'll work with them to get them back in the air as soon as they can.”
The future of Starbase is uncertain. In 2022, Elon Musk told a press conference The South Texas Space Station will be used only for test flights, not for actual tasks. But since then, despite the planned construction of Starship launch pads in Florida, SpaceX plans to build another launch pad at Starbase and use it for actual operations. The company plans to build a $100 million office complex, new employee housing and a new factory to improve the upper and lower levels of its beach facility.
Following coordination of Starbase's expansion plans, crews appeared to install a new “Gateway to Mars” sign at the space station. With today's successful test launch and ongoing plans to prepare Starbase for interplanetary travel, the aspirational moniker is no closer to becoming a reality.
