BOCA CHICA, Texas – Starship is now fully stacked on its launch pad in SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, months after a first launch attempt ended in an explosion.
SpaceX posted video of the stacking of the heavy rocket on Tuesday evening on X.com, formerly Twitter.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk then reposted the video and said “Starship is ready to launch, awaiting (Federal Aviation Administration) license approval.”
Neither Musk nor SpaceX gave any idea of when they were looking at making another launch attempt.
Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval https://t.co/WjENkdudo9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 6, 2023
The first launch attempt for the fully integrated Starship and super-heavy rocket happened April 20.
The rocket cleared the tower and was supposed to make a 1.5-hour-long test flight, falling short of going into full Earth orbit. Instead, the rocket began to tumble and then exploded four minutes into flight.
SpaceX said the rocket experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation.”
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Despite the explosion, SpaceX said the test flight was successful.
“With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX seeks to make life multi-planetary,” SpaceX said.
SpaceX says the rocket is the most powerful spacecraft ever built. The goal is to fly the rocket to the moon as part of the Artemis program, and eventually to Mars.
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