SpaceX’s Starship gets go-ahead from US FAA to resume launches
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The Federal Aviation Administration reinstated SpaceX’s Starship launch licence.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – SpaceX received approval to resume launches of its groundbreaking Starship rocket
The Federal Aviation Administration reinstated SpaceX’s Starship launch licence, the agency said on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear when SpaceX would conduct a launch from its site in Boca Chica, Texas, but Mr Musk previously said the company was targeting as early as Friday.
Starship – the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed – is key to Mr Musk’s ambitions of carrying payloads and people to distant destinations like the moon and Mars.
Starship will also be used for launching the company’s next-generation Starlink satellites, meant to increase capacity of the internet-from-space initiative.
The approval is an important milestone for SpaceX after the agency grounded the rocket in the wake of its first test flight on Apr 20.
During that flight, Starship successfully took off from its Texas launchpad, but suffered multiple engine failures as it ascended into the sky.
The rocket then failed to separate as planned and started spinning out of control, prompting SpaceX to intentionally blow it up.
The launch itself also damaged SpaceX’s launchpad and spread debris and pulverised concrete across hundreds of acres of terrain. BLOOMBERG
