Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, believes that his company’s launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, will gain regulatory approval to launch by March, and that the first orbital launch of SpaceX’s new Starship rocket will occur this year.
Musk made these remarks during his first Starship presentation since 2019, which took place Friday night at the company’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Standing in front of a fully stacked prototype of the rocket that towered over the stage, Musk offered a summary of some of the vehicle’s most recent specs, why he wants to pursue deep space travel, and when he expects all of this to come to fruition.
It was Musk’s fifth Starship presentation altogether, and he spoke for more over an hour on Thursday night. However, the CEO didn’t reveal any substantial new information about Starship that he hadn’t already revealed. During the event’s question and answer period, some new information about estimated costs and future flight plans was revealed. However, for the die-hard SpaceX fan, it was essentially a repeat of what Musk has previously said. The timing appeared to be well-calculated, given that the Federal Aviation Administration is about to decide whether to approve Starship’s launch to orbit from Boca Chica.
« Life can’t only be about solving problems, » Musk remarked when asked why interplanetary travel is desirable. « There must be things that move your heart and inspire you. » It’s a reason he’s used before.
SpaceX’s huge next-generation rocket, Starship, is designed to transport passengers and cargo to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars. The spaceship, which is totally reusable, is designed to launch into orbit on top of a massive booster rocket known as the Super Heavy. Starship will be able to land on the planets of distant worlds as well as on Earth using its primary Raptor engines. After launch, the Super Heavy booster will be able to return to Earth.
The most pressing question for media was where SpaceX stood in terms of obtaining a launch authorization from the FAA. The FAA is currently deciding whether to grant SpaceX permission to launch Starship from Boca Chica, as the agency is in charge of ensuring that launches to orbit do not endanger uninvolved people or property. While the licensing process has been divisive, with some environmentalists arguing that the FAA should undertake a more in-depth examination of Starship’s impacts on the surrounding area, Musk has stated that he believes the decision will favor SpaceX. « We don’t have a lot of insight into how things are going with the FAA, » Musk admitted. « We’ve had a rough indication that a clearance could come in March. »
The Verge requested comment from the FAA but did not receive a response in time for publishing.
For the last few years, SpaceX has been aggressively building Starship from the company’s launch site at Boca Chica. SpaceX engineers have been pounding out prototype after prototype at the location, which is located just north of the border, while conducting numerous testing with the vehicles. So far, the business has undertaken a few high-altitude flights with the prototypes, flying them to more than 32,000 feet above the Earth before attempting to land them again. The purpose was to test Starship’s capacity to utilize its engines to softly touch down on Earth, a technique it would eventually use while landing on other planets. Out of all of those tests, SpaceX only successfully landed one prototype that did not explode.
Now, SpaceX is solely focused on sending Starship into orbit to demonstrate that the vehicle is capable of reaching space. While SpaceX may still have work to do on Starship before it is ready for launch, regulatory certification represents a major obstacle in the rocket company’s path. And, as SpaceX’s plans for Boca Chica have grown in recent years, the FAA’s decision-making process has been riddled with instability.
Back in 2014, the FAA granted SpaceX permission to launch from Boca Chica, even preparing a comprehensive environment impact statement, or EIS, to detail how the launch site would damage the surrounding area and wildlife refuge. However, that permission was granted when SpaceX planned to launch its smaller Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from the area. Now that SpaceX intends to launch Starship from Boca Chica, the FAA must decide if the firm can continue to launch to orbit on a regular basis, if improvements to the site are required, or if a new EIS is required. The latter approach would take a significant amount of time as the FAA consults with more experts and collects more data regarding SpaceX’s footprint at Boca Chica and its possible environmental implications.
The FAA has stated that it intends to reach a decision by the end of February, making Musk’s remarks more pertinent, maybe as a tactic to put pressure on the FAA. SpaceX is relying heavily on the ability to launch from the Boca Chica location, which it has dubbed Starbase. Musk contended that the remote location enabled SpaceX to conduct more experimental missions than the company’s other principal launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. « Because we’ve had a number of launches out of the Cape, we didn’t want to disrupt the Cape activities, the operational launches, with sort of the advanced R&D of Starship, » Musk explained. « As a result, it was critical to isolate operational launches from R&D launches. »
Musk did say that if the FAA didn’t approve Starbase right away, SpaceX may use the Cape in the future. « We do have the Cape as an option, » Musk stated. « And we really asked for and gained environmental certification for launching from the Cape a few years ago. » He observed that the worst-case situation would be that SpaceX would be delayed for up to eight months while it built a launch tower for the Cape so that Starship could take off from there.
Even if Starbase is approved, it is unknown when SpaceX will be ready to launch. Musk stated that he is « very certain » Starship will reach orbit this year and that SpaceX plans to launch its maiden orbital attempt once the FAA approves the business. However, he provided few solid details about recent developments in the development of Starship’s hardware. « I believe we’re on the verge of having the hardware ready to go, » Musk added. « At the moment, I believe we’re on schedule to achieve regulatory permission and hardware readiness around the same time. »
