Good Monday morning, friends. It’s your Space Coast correspondent James Sparvero.
Did you enjoy watching Starship’s third flight test on Thursday? (A test unlike any other in history!)
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Of course, while many objectives went as planned, like reaching space for the first time, Starship’s IFT-3 wasn’t perfect. And every time testing doesn’t go exactly as the flight plan that was outlined to the FAA, it’s considered a mishap. And mishaps, as we’ve seen following Starship’s first two flight tests, take months of reviews.
I make this point two years out from the current timeframe in which NASA hopes to land astronauts on the moon during Artemis III. As we’ve talked about extensively, Starship is the mission’s lunar lander.
After Thursday’s launch, I asked longtime CBS space journalist Bill Harwood at Kennedy Space Center if SpaceX not reaching every objective could mean another delay to the moon landing. Bill said it’s too early to know, but 2026 is probably unlikely given all the additional progress SpaceX will have to make first.
“They’re going to have refuel the Starship moon lander in low-Earth orbit, 10 flights or so of this giant rocket, just to refuel the moon lander before they can send it to the moon. They’re going to have to demonstrate reliability, meaning multiple launches are going to have to go well before NASA’s going to risk putting astronauts on board,” Bill told me in our interview.
We’ll see how long before the largest, most powerful rocket in history flies for a fourth time.
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👋 Here’s a little bit more about me.
Little did I know when watching Apollo 13 in the third grade that 20 years later, I was destined for a thrilling career as your Space Coast multimedia journalist.
Chemistry and biology weren’t so interesting to me in high school science, but I loved my Earth and Space class (Thanks, Mr. Lang).
Then in 2016, I traded Capitol correspondent in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for space correspondent. I’m proud that my first live report at News 6 happened to be the first time SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster on a barge. What seems so routine now was a really big deal that day in our newsroom!
From there, I’ve covered the Commercial Crew program and the return of human spaceflight to Kennedy Space Center (Demo-2 launched on my 33rd birthday!)
Now, as our coverage looks forward to missions to the moon and Mars, I often tell others I have the best job in local news. Because after all I’ve seen so far, I think I would be bored working somewhere else. I even bought a house near the Cape with a great view to the north so I never miss a launch even when I’m not working.
After eight years on the beat, though, I still consider myself a young space reporter and I always look forward to learning something new with every assignment.
Have a great launch into the rest of your week!