As of: February 14, 2024, 8:40 p.m
By: Tanja Banner
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SpaceX’s “Starship” is waiting to be launched.
© Screenshot SpaceX/X
There is still no license from the aviation regulator for the third launch attempt of SpaceX's “Starship”.
But Elon Musk is confident.
Boca Chica - Some time has passed since the last launch of SpaceX's giant "Starship" rocket, but it looks as if the next launch attempt of the 121 meter high rocket is imminent.
On the one hand, you can see this if you look to the south of Texas.
There, SpaceX has built the “Starbase” near the town of Boca Chica, a place where the rocket parts are produced, assembled and also tested.
On the “Starbase” you can now see the third “Starship”, which is assembled and awaiting final tests before the third launch attempt.
On the other hand, you can read what SpaceX founder Elon Musk writes on X (formerly Twitter).
“'Starships' are designed to fly and our next one is launching in about three weeks,” the billionaire readily shared there on February 12th.
However, SpaceX has not yet received a launch license, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is still examining the effects of the last rocket launch, which took place in November 2023 and ended with an unplanned explosion.
SpaceX's Starship is scheduled to launch in the coming weeks
Dates that Musk announces are not always reliable: Last year, the SpaceX founder announced that the third test flight would be possible before Christmas.
In January, a SpaceX employee said they expected the FAA license in February.
The “Starship” is currently the largest and most powerful rocket.
In April and November 2023 it set off on test flights, both of which resulted in explosions.
It is planned that the “Starship” will carry the next astronauts to the moon for NASA in the coming years as a “Human Landing System”.
In the even more distant future, the huge rocket will transport people and cargo to Mars and thus help turn humanity into a “multiplanetary species”.
This vision was one of the reasons why Elon Musk founded SpaceX.
Elon Musk and SpaceX are revolutionizing space travel
In recent years, SpaceX has disrupted space travel.
Where there was only government space travel, SpaceX pushed commercial space travel.
Where rockets were thrown away after a single use, SpaceX introduced reusable rockets.
The Falcon 9 rocket's boosters are now recycled several times, which has caused the price of rocket launches to shrink.
The US space organization Nasa now relies on SpaceX to transport its astronauts, and important science missions are also launched into space by Musk's rockets.
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The “Starship” – the largest rocket in the world
The rocket called “Starship” consists of two parts: The lower, first rocket stage is called “Super Heavy” and is the rocket booster with 33 engines.
In the future, the “Super Heavy” will land back on Earth after launch and be reused.
However, this was not planned for the previous test flights.
The second part of the “Starship” is the upper rocket stage, called “Starship”.
It is a spaceship that should be able to fly to the moon or Mars, land there and take off again later.
The fact that the entire rocket is also called a “Starship” causes confusion at times.
At 121 meters high, it is the largest rocket in the world - the moon rocket "Saturn V" was 110 meters high, NASA's "Space Launch System" is only 98 meters high.
The “Starship” is supposed to be the current highlight of the development.
But the development of the large rocket is currently being watched critically - because it is behind schedule and appears to be slowing down the USA's next moon landing.
The date for the prestigious mission was recently pushed back by a year - and there are still many things to test and refine before people are allowed to climb into the vehicle for the first time.
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