SpaceX has finally received authorization from the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to carry out the second test flight of the Starship. Elon Musk’s company has already set a date and time for the new launch window, which will take place this week.
The aerospace company aims to complete the takeoff of the Starship tomorrow, Friday, November 17within a period of two hours that will begin at 07:00 US Central Time. Of course, its completion will be subject to weather conditions and that no technical failures appear during the prior review.
The FAA announced the authorization for the second launch of the Starship through a statement posted on X (Twitter). In it, the organization indicated that SpaceX complied with “all safety, environmental, and political and financial responsibility requirements.”
With this confirmation, a period of a few months of certain uncertainty for Musk’s team closes. In September, the FAA itself had warned that the Starship would not fly again until SpaceX resolved dozens of critical failures that not only affected the ship of the same name and the rocket. Super Heavybut also to the launch pad.
Will Starship reach Earth orbit on its second attempt?
After the first attempt, which ended in an explosion after a failure in the decoupling between the ship and the rocket, Elon Musk had anticipated that more than 1,000 changes would be made for the second test flight. Among the most important, the introduction of a “hot” system for the release of the Starship and a new electrical control for the vector thrust, instead of the original hydraulic one.
Likewise, the magnate explained that the launch platform had been strengthened to prevent the Raptor engines of the Super Heavy rocket from destroying it again. For this they applied 1,000 cubic meters of steel reinforced concrete, with two water-cooled steel plates on top. According to the businessman, this solution was devised as if it were a gigantic shower head located upside down.
There is great expectation about what results SpaceX will achieve with the second flight of the Starship. Despite the large number of changes applied, Musk had been quite cautious when estimating the success of the mission. “I think the probability of the next launch working and reaching orbit is much higher than the previous one. Maybe it’s like 60%.. “It depends on how well we do in the separation of stages,” he said in June.
For now, everything seems ready for the Starship to return to the ring. The ship and the Super Heavy rocket are already on the platform at the Boca Chica base, Texas, awaiting the new launch. SpaceX will broadcast the event through its website and on the company’s profile on X (Twitter).
As we indicated at the beginning, the window for Starship’s takeoff will open at 07:00 US Central Time. Below are the times to see it from different parts of the world:
- Spain: 2:00 p.m.
- Argentina: 10:00 hours.
- Mexico: 07:00 hours.
- Colombia: 08:00 hours.