After months of being grounded by the FAA, SpaceX’s Starship rocket could soon see its second launch in a matter of days, the company said Friday.
“The second flight test of a fully integrated Starship could launch as soon as mid-November, pending regulatory approval,” SpaceX said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Starship was grounded by the agency in April, pending an investigation after its initial test flight exploded in flames when the spacecraft lost control during stage separation just minutes into the flight.
The FAA concluded its probe into the mishap in September and wrapped up the safety review portion of the SpaceX Starship-Super Heavy license evaluation earlier this week. The safety review is considered a principal component in the process that grants companies authority to launch rockets.
The second flight test of a fully integrated Starship could launch as soon as mid-November, pending regulatory approval → https://t.co/pxgvgUeIFF pic.twitter.com/P40vOCaFaZ
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 3, 2023
“Starship’s first flight test provided numerous lessons learned that directly contributed to several upgrades to both the vehicle and ground infrastructure to improve the probability of success on future flights,” SpaceX said. “The second flight test will debut a hot-stage separation system and a new electronic Thrust Vector Control (TVC) system for Super Heavy Raptor engines, in addition to reinforcements to the pad foundation and a water-cooled steel flame deflector, among many other enhancements.”
SpaceX also announced it will livestream a webcast of the flight test, which will begin about 30 minutes before launch.
