SpaceX cleared by FAA to launch first orbital Starship flight

SpaceX cleared by FAA to launch first orbital Starship flight


A Starship prototype is seen stacked on top of a Super Heavy booster at the company’s launch facility near Brownsville, Texas.

SpaceX

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Starship launch license to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a crucial final regulatory step that clears the company to attempt an orbital launch of its towering rocket for the first time.

“After a comprehensive license evaluation process, the FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and financial responsibility requirements. The license is valid for five years,” FAA said in a statement.

SpaceX, with the FAA license now in hand, aims to launch Starship as soon as Monday from its private facility in Texas along the Gulf Coast.

“SpaceX is targeting as soon as Monday, April 17 for the first flight test of a fully integrated Starship and Super Heavy rocket from Starbase in Texas. The 150-minute test window will open at 7:00 a.m. CT,” SpaceX said in a statement.

Sign up here to receive weekly editions of CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter.

The company recently stacked Starship prototype 24 on Super Heavy booster prototype 7 in preparation for the launch. Together they stand nearly 400 feet high. SpaceX in February completed a test firing of the Super Heavy booster, which has 33 Raptor engines at its base, in one of the final technical steps toward the launch.

SpaceX for several years has been building up to the first orbital flight test of its Starship rocket, with company leadership stressing the experimental nature of the launch. While SpaceX had hoped to conduct the first orbital Starship launch as early as summer 2021, delays in progress and regulatory approval have pushed back that timeline.

The rocket is set to lift off from SpaceX’s development facility near Brownsville, Texas, before heading east across the Gulf of Mexico, according to 2021 filings that revealed the flight plan. The ultimate goal of the mission is to reach orbit, with the rocket aiming to travel most of the way around the Earth and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii.

Starship is designed to carry cargo and people beyond Earth and is critical to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a nearly $3 billion contract from the space agency in 2021 to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander.

Why Starship is indispensable for the future of SpaceX



Source

IMAX is headed for its best year on record as it capitalizes on Hollywood’s box office rebound
Business

IMAX is headed for its best year on record as it capitalizes on Hollywood’s box office rebound

General atmosphere during an IMAX private screening for the movie “First Man” at an AMC theater in New York City on Oct. 10, 2018. Lars Niki | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images More than a year before “F1: The Movie” would eventually hit theaters, Apple struck a deal with IMAX. The studio secured the […]

Read More
How Iconiq, the wealth firm backed by Mark Zuckerberg, brings ultra-rich philanthropists together
Business

How Iconiq, the wealth firm backed by Mark Zuckerberg, brings ultra-rich philanthropists together

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Square CEO Jack Dorsey. Manuel Orbegozo | Handout | Reuters A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Even as tax changes may reduce giving by […]

Read More
Patrick Mahomes is investing in his love for coffee — and isn’t thrilled about an 18-game season
Business

Patrick Mahomes is investing in his love for coffee — and isn’t thrilled about an 18-game season

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has added “coffee entrepreneur” to his already packed resume. The three-time Super Bowl champion has invested in Throne Sport Coffee, adding to the 29-year-old superstar’s portfolio off the field. As his Chiefs and the rest of the NFL gear up for the upcoming season, Mahomes spoke to CNBC about […]

Read More