SpaceX's next Starship megarocket now has a license to fly.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday (Dec. 17) issued a launch license for SpaceX's upcoming Starship Flight 7 test flight, clearing the way for the company's next launch of the world's largest rocket from South Texas. The launch license comes on the heels of several Starship engine tests by SpaceX to check the flight readiness of its seventh Ship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket booster.
"The FAA continues to increase efficiencies in our licensing determination activities to meet the needs of the commercial space transportation industry," Kelvin B. Coleman, FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, said in a statement. "This license modification that we are issuing is well ahead of the Starship Flight 7 launch date and is another example of the FAA’s commitment to enable safe space transportation."
SpaceX has not yet set a target date for its Flight 7 Starship launch test from its Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach, but with about two weeks remaining in the year, a potential flight in early or mid-January 2025 may be the most likely. Officials with Cameron County, Texas — a region that includes Starbase — have not issued any road closures for the remainder of December. Such road closure notices typically accompany imminent Starship launch tests by SpaceX.
As its name suggests, Flight 7 will be SpaceX's seventh major test launch of its Starship megarocket. The company has performed a series of short "static-fire" engine tests with the Starship upper-stage vehicle and the Super Heavy booster, but they have not yet been stacked atop one another for flight.
Related: What's next for SpaceX's Starship after its successful 6th test flight?
When fully assembled, the six-engine Starship spacecraft and 33-engine Super Heavy booster stand nearly 400 feet (122 meters), making it the world's tallest and most powerful rocket. SpaceX successfully caught its Flight 5 Super Heavy booster with the giant metal "chopsticks" at the Starbase launch pad this past October.
During the Flight 6 test flight in November, SpaceX skipped the booster catch due to a sensor issue but successfully soft-landed its Starship vehicle in the Indian Ocean, capturing stunning video of the splashdown. The Starship Flight 7 test is expected to recreate that Ship landing in the ocean while also making another attempt at catching the Super Heavy booster.
"The Flight 7 mission profile involves launch of the combined Starship/Super Heavy vehicle from Boca Chica, Texas, a return to the launch site of the Super Heavy booster rocket for a catch attempt by the launch tower, and a water landing of the Starship vehicle in the Indian Ocean west of Australia," FAA officials wrote in the license update.
SpaceX has designed Starship and Super Heavy to serve as a fully reusable heavy-lift system for launching massive payloads into orbit or on trips to the moon, Mars or beyond. The company has launched six Starship test flights since April 2023.
NASA has picked the Starship vehicle to land its Artemis 3 astronauts on the moon in 2027, and SpaceX has already sold at least two flights on Starship to private customers, including American billionaire Jared Isaacman. Isaacman booked the first crewed flight on a Starship spacecraft as part of his Polaris Program of three SpaceX flights, the first of which launched in September of this year and included the world's first private spacewalk.
Isaacman also bankrolled SpaceX's 2021 Inspiration4 private spaceflight and has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as NASA Administrator if confirmed next year.
SpaceX hopes to scale up its Starship launch test campaign in 2025, with up to 24 test flights. The company has said it would take at least eight Starship launches (and maybe more) to fuel a single Ship vehicle to reach the moon, and new in-space refueling technology will be needed.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk first unveiled the concept for what would become Starship in 2016. Earlier this year, Musk said SpaceX is hoping to launch its first Starship to Mars in 2026.
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