In a presentation in front of the interplanetary Starship, the American businessman said that technically the vehicle was close to being ready. They’re basically waiting for the Federal Aviation Administration, the authority that issues flight licenses, something it won’t do until an environmental assessment of the spacecraft is complete.
“I think we’re tracking to have regulatory approval and hardware availability around the same time,” Musk said in Boca Chica, Texas. “Hopefully, you know, basically a couple of months for both of us.” “I feel, at this point, very confident that we will be in orbit this year,” Musk continued in the Starship presentation broadcast live from Starbase, SpaceX’s facility in south Texas.
Big dreams for this ship
If all goes according to plan, Starship will make possible the colonization of Mars, among other historic milestones for humanity. The ship is set to carry people and cargo to the Moon, Mars and other deep space destinations.
The system, which is made up of two elements: a large first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and an upper-stage spacecraft called Starship (scheduled for both unmanned and manned missions) , rises up to 119 meters above the ground. It is a great ship. Much taller than any other spacecraft NASA has built in the past.
One of the special project’s strengths is that both stages are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable . The goal is for every Starship vehicle to be able to launch from the Earth’s surface every six to eight hours, and every Super Heavy every hour . Its fuel is liquid methane and liquid oxygen, which Musk says can also be obtained on Mars.
But before sending humans to Mars, Starship will have to pass the acid test. You must first prove you can reach Earth orbit and pass the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) environmental impact assessment at Starbase, its Boca Chica, Texas facility, before you can make this attempt.
What if they don’t get FAA approval?
In case this happens, Starship could be launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida , something that would delay the launch and even make changes to the launch tower due to the great height of this spacecraft that aims to make history.
Starship already has a private client : a Japanese businessman who bought a flight around the Moon and plans to bring a dozen artists with him. Musk himself has also hinted that there are others interested in acquiring new trips and that he would soon talk about them.
Also, let us remember that in April 2021, NASA selected Starship as the first manned lander for its Artemis (or Artemis) lunar exploration program whose goal is to establish a sustainable presence on our satellite and lay the foundations to send humans to Mars starting in 2033. The SpaceX spacecraft will put NASA astronauts on the Moon on the Artemis 3 mission, which is due to take off in about 2025.
