SpaceX may finally be ready to complete Starship's long-awaited orbital test flight as early as next month, according to Elon Musk.
The company founder and CEO on Saturday teased a March takeoff, tweeting that "If remaining tests go well, we will attempt a Starship launch next month."
The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket (collectively referred to as Starship) is a fully reusable system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Its journey to outer space, however, has not exactly been smooth sailing.
In March 2021, a Starship prototype crashed in a fiery explosion; eight months later, a planned launch was delayed while the Federal Aviation Administration conducted an environmental review of the craft. Following completion in June, the FAA ordered SpaceX to introduce more than 75 measures before it could obtain a launch license.
While SpaceX has ticked a few items off its to-do list—including January's successful first stacked fueling test—it still needs to complete crucial tasks like firing all of the Super Heavy stage's 33 Raptor engines, of which the firm has only ever ignited 14 simultaneously.
Once cleared by the FAA, Starship is expected to launch from SpaceX's Boca Chica facility in Texas. The booster will break off three minutes into flight, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico as the spacecraft flies into orbit before reentering Earth's atmosphere and making an ocean landing near Hawaii.
Between Starship, Super Heavy, and the payload they both transport, the full craft is more than 394 feet tall with a 30-foot diameter. All told, it should be able to carry more than 100 metric tons into Earth orbit.