Depending on how soon it can obtain an updated launch license, SpaceX hopes to launch its Starship vehicle as early as May for its next mission.
Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, stated during a speech at the Satellite 2024 conference on March 19 that while the firm was still analyzing the data from the vehicle’s third integrated launch on March 14, it anticipated being prepared to launch again shortly.
When questioned about the study of mission data, she replied, “We’re still going through the data” from the flight. . “It was an incredibly successful flight. We hit exactly where we wanted to go.”
The vehicle was launched onto its intended suborbital trajectory when the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage both performed as expected throughout their ascent. During a propellant transfer demonstration, which involved transporting liquid oxygen between two tanks within the vessel, the payload door of the starship was opened while in orbit.
The business attributed the absence of the anticipated relighting of Starship’s Raptor engines while in orbit to a roll that the spacecraft experienced. At a height of roughly 65 kilometers, the vehicle broke apart during reentry. Additionally, during a scheduled landing burn, the Super Heavy booster burst in the last moments of its descent to the Gulf of Mexico.
Without addressing any potential issues with either stage, she stated, “We’ll figure out what happened on both stages and get back to flight hopefully in about six weeks,” or early May.
She also stated that, contrary to what some had thought, the business does not plan to launch Starlink satellites on the next Starship. “Things are still in trade, but I think we’re really going to focus on getting reentry right and making sure we can land these things where we want to land them.”
That timeline will be contingent upon the conclusion of an accident investigation, which must be authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration. Prior to the subsequent launch, the FAA would need to amend Starship’s current launch license.
Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, spoke at the Space Capitol III event by Payload March 18. He stated he did not expect that review to uncover any substantial flaws that could cause a large delay in the next launch.
“It ended in what we call a mishap, but at the end of the day we deem it a successful launch attempt,” he said, noting that there were no injuries or property damages. “SpaceX was able to collect a great deal of data from that launch.”
Noting that the business completed the study in several weeks following the second Starship mission, he stated he expected SpaceX to release a mishap investigation report promptly. Here,“We expect the same to be the case here. We didn’t see anything major. We don’t think there’s any critical systems for safety that were implicated.”
Since the first flight, SpaceX’s Starship launch license has been revised by the FAA to account for mission modifications, such as the use of a modified suborbital trajectory on the most recent flight. Coleman stated that the organization prefers to switch to a procedure in which the license is good for a “portfolio of launches” as opposed to individual ones. He went on to say that this is especially crucial because SpaceX intends to launch six to nine more Starships this year.
This is a part of a larger initiative to expedite the launch licensing procedure in response to complaints from Congress and business sectors that the FAA is approving launch permits under the new Part 450 regulations far too slowly. Coleman said that the FAA would organize an aerospace rulemaking committee, or SpARC, to formally gather industry feedback on how to enhance Part 450, during the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference on February 21.
During the Satellite 2024 conference, Shotwell stated that the primary goal is to have the vehicle operational, but he did not specify how many Starship launches the business plans to make this year.
She stated, “I’d love to get Starship into orbit, deploying satellites, and recover both stages,” “with rapid turnaround on those stages as well.”