Friday, SpaceX stacked a Starship on top of one of their Super Heavy boosters to create the most powerful and tallest rocket on Earth. The now-massive ship is about 475 feet tall. And SpaceX is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for approval so they can schedule a launch date.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been “teasing” the launch for months. During the Mobile World Congress, he said “we are going to do our best to do an orbital [Starship] launch attempt in the next few months.”
And he’s been tweeting the need to stay aggressive with SpaceX’s schedule.
There is the internal goal if things go right, which needs to be aggressive. Obviously, some things will not go right internally & there will be external issues too.
That said, I think we can stack an orbital ship on an orbital booster in July.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 29, 2021
They want to get through the testing in order to assure that by 2023, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, will be ready to launch in the SpaceX skyscraper rocket.
Musk hopes that by September the engineers and technicians can start testing the new Starship.
There is a possibility that the first enhanced Starship may explode on its launch pad. The tallest rocket will be powered by 29 rocket engines, clustered close together. And this has never been done before.
FAA approvals and Tests on tallest rocket
It’s important that all boxes are checked. The FAA will first need to approve the environmental assessment of launching such in the South Texas wetlands. Then there will be a 30-day public comment period.
