A senior NASA official suggested SpaceX wants to fly one of its Starship prototypes into space for the first time in December, according to Reuters (opens in a new tab). The agency has a stake in Starship’s progress. NASA selected the giant rocket as the first crewed lunar lander for the Artemis lunar exploration program. If all goes according to the current plan, a Starship will put the boots on near the Moon’s south pole in 2025 or 2026, on the Artemis 3 mission. “We’re looking at four major Starship flybys. The first one here is coming in December, early December,” Mark Kirasich, deputy managing associate for the development of the Artemis campaign, said during a NASA Advisory Board meeting that was broadcast live Monday ( 31 October). . No Starship prototype has flown since May 2021, and all of its excursions so far have reached a maximum altitude of only about 6 miles (10 km). SpaceX’s desire to fly an orbital mission with Starship has led to a lengthy environmental review by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and there is still much to be done, Reuters reported. That FAA review, called a programmatic environmental assessment, examined Starship’s operations at Starbase, SpaceX’s facility near the southern Texas city of Brownsville. The FAA completed the review in June, after numerous delays since late 2021 due to the need to consult with other agencies and address public feedback. The FAA said this summer that SpaceX must take 75 steps to reduce its environmental impact in the region. Despite the fact that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said several times that Starship would be ready to launch soon — Musk recently said the target was November — it appears that SpaceX isn’t quite done with these figures. of FAA action. An FAA spokesman told Reuters on Monday that the agency would grant an orbital launch permit “only after SpaceX provides all outstanding information and the agency can fully analyze it.” The FAA did not provide further information in the report about the pending items, and SpaceX did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. In photos: SpaceX stacks Starship and Super Heavy on launch pad ahead of orbital test flight The upcoming mission aims to place a 165-foot-tall (50-meter) prototype Starship vehicle into orbit atop a 230-foot-tall (70-meter) Super Heavy booster. The stacked material is the tallest rocket system ever. (The Starship consists of the Super Heavy and the upper stage Starship, which are designed for reuse.) SpaceX already has a series of static fire tests in 2022 to prepare Starship for the roughly 90-minute mission that, if successful, would see the spacecraft touch down off the coast of Hawaii. However, it is unclear how much preparation is left before SpaceX is ready to launch the mission. SpaceX’s Human Landing System contract with NASA requires several successful spaceflight tests before Starship is authorized to put astronauts on the moon. NASA is also seeking a second vendor for manned Artemis landing missions, but more options will not be ready up to Artemis 5 at the earliest, putting SpaceX in line for landings Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 in about 2025 and 2027, depending on how previous missions go. The program’s first mission, the unmanned Artemis 1, is scheduled to lift off on November 14. Elizabeth Howell is the co-author of Why Am I Taller (opens in new tab)? (ECW Press, 2022; with Canadian astronaut Dave Williams), a book on space medicine. Follow her on Twitter @howellspace (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or Facebook (opens in a new tab).
