SpaceX has the FAA’s green light to launch more test missions of its colossal Starship spacecraft, the largest and most powerful rocket to ever fly.
The aviation regulator last week issued SpaceX a modified Part 450 launch license, allowing the firm to conduct multiple missions of Starship and the Super Heavy booster under the configuration and mission profile they will use on their upcoming seventh test flight.
“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,” said Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, in a Dec. 17 statement.
The agency in recent months has taken heat from SpaceX and U.S. lawmakers for what they characterize as unnecessary delays to the Starship test program.
For Flight 7, Starship and Super Heavy are expected to launch from SpaceX’s Starbase launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship will fly about halfway around the globe into a water landing in the Indian Ocean. Super Heavy, meanwhile, will return to the launch site, where SpaceX will attempt to catch it as it slows from supersonic speeds.
The mission profile is similar to the rocket and booster’s past two test missions. Those also featured attempts to catch Super Heavy using a pair of metal chopstick arms attached to the launch tower at Starbase, which SpaceX refers to as “Mechazilla.” The company successfully pulled off the unprecedented maneuver on its first try but aborted the second attempt.
Catching and returning both Starship and Super Heavy to the pad is key to the vehicle’s reusability, which SpaceX believes will allow it to launch up to 25 times per year. Starship will need to fly as often as possible in order to reach testing goals set by NASA ahead of the Artemis III lunar landing, which will mark American astronauts’ return to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era.
As early as mid-2027, a Starship human landing system (HLS) will deposit the crew at the lunar south pole, where it will explore the region’s shadowy craters in search of water ice. Before then, though, SpaceX will need to demonstrate a few more key maneuvers and send Starship on a test mission to the moon.
According to documents shared with the FAA by NASA, SpaceX is eyeing January 11 for the launch of Flight 7. The space agency requested an exemption that would allow its specially equipped Gulfstream V to collect high-resolution thermal imagery as Starship reenters the atmosphere. To capture it, NASA would require the spacecraft to turn off all of its lights and land when the sun is down.
For Flight 7, the FAA also added two new test-induced damage exceptions, which allow SpaceX to avoid a mishap investigation even when certain Starship components fail during a mission.
Previously, exceptions covered failure of Starship’s thermal shield during high heating, its flap system during high pressure, and its Raptor engines during the spacecraft’s landing burn. The new additions permit failure of the Raptor engines during an in-space burn demonstration — such as the one SpaceX performed on Flight 6 — and Super Heavy’s systems following the booster catch attempt.
SpaceX contended with FAA investigations following Starship’s first three flights, grounding the rocket temporarily, but has not had a mishap since.
Editor’s note: This story first appeared on Flying.
