SpaceX planning Monday test flight of giant Starship rocket
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on April 15, 2023
(NEW YORK) — SpaceX is eyeing a Monday morning launch of its powerful Starship rocket — which is expected to eventually carry passengers to the moon and Mars.
The unmanned launch of the world’s largest rocket will mark the first flight test of a “fully integrated” Starship spacecraft and the so-called Super Heavy rocket, SpaceX said.
The 150-minute test window opens at 7 a.m. CT Monday, SpaceX said, while noting that the schedule is “dynamic and likely to change.” A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 45 minutes before liftoff.
The timing comes after the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday approved SpaceX’s launch of the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket from a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas near Boca Chica Beach.
“Success maybe, excitement guaranteed!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted Friday night.
Following blastoff, the first stage of the super heavy rocket is expected to splash down about 20 miles off the coast of Boca Chica while the Starship vehicle orbits around the globe before splashing down off the coast of Hawaii.
The timing comes after the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday approved SpaceX’s launch of the nearly 400-foot-tall rocket from a remote site on the southernmost tip of Texas near Boca Chica Beach.
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 → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK pic.twitter.com/Ry25Uuvknh
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 14, 2023
For this first flight test, SpaceX said it will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the booster.
SpaceX said this flight test will “inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship,” which is designed to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights.
NASA has already announced plans to use a Starship to put astronauts on the lunar surface in 2025.
ABC News’ Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
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