SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the third test flight of the unmanned spacecraft developed for lunar and Mars exploration, Starship.
Accordingly, SpaceX announced that the test flight is scheduled to take place at 7 a.m. Central Time (9 p.m. Korean Time on the 14th) from Starbase in Southern Texas.
According to Reuters, the FAA issued a statement on the 13th (local time), stating that “SpaceX has met all safety, environmental, policy, and financial responsibility requirements.”
The last two test flights of Starship ended in failure as they exploded before reaching their target, so attention is focused on the success of this test flight.
The first test flight failed on April 20th last year as the Starship exploded in mid-air about four minutes after it failed to separate from the rocket. The second test flight conducted on November 18th last year also failed as it exploded 10 minutes after takeoff, although the second-stage rocket separated.
SpaceX announced that it will broadcast the test flight process through social media X beginning 30 minutes before the launch.
Starship is the key rocket being developed by Musk for Mars colonization. It has the largest total length ever at 394 feet, and its thrust is 7590 tf (ton-force, 1 tf is the force to lift 1 ton).
This spacecraft is also expected to be used in the third phase of NASA’s manned lunar exploration project, Artemis.