SpaceX’s upcoming Starship megarocket officially has a license to fly.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday (June 4) issued a launch license to SpaceX for its Starship Flight 4 test mission, which is currently scheduled to lift off no earlier than Thursday, June 6, from the Starbase facility of the company near Boca Chica. Beach in South Texas.
“The FAA has approved a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 4,” FAA officials wrote in a statement. “SpaceX met all safety and other licensing requirements for this test flight.”
Connected: SpaceX targets June 6 for next launch of Starship megarocket (photo)
As its name suggests, SpaceX’s Starship Flight 4 mission is the fourth test flight of the company’s Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicles. When fully assembled, they are nearly 400 feet tall and are the largest and most powerful rocket in the world. SpaceX has designed Starship as a fully reusable ultra-heavy lift launch system for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. NASA’s Artemis program, for one, has selected Starship as the lander to carry Artemis 3 astronauts to the Moon’s south pole in 2026.
But before Starship can fly to the moon, SpaceX must prove that the shiny, stainless steel rocket can reach orbit.
The company has conducted three test flights to date: A failed debut in April 2023 that destroyed SpaceX’s launch pad as well as the rocket; a second flight in November of that year also failed to reach space; and the recent launch of Starship Flight 3 on March 18 of this year, which reached space for the first time before the vehicle and its Super Heavy booster were lost before reaching their final crash targets.
After each Starship launch test, the FAA conducted time-consuming failure investigations and made recommendations that SpaceX needed to address before any subsequent launch attempts. For Starship Flight 4, SpaceX and the FAA have agreed to a different approach.
“As part of its license modification request, SpaceX proposed three scenarios involving Starship entry that would not require a vehicle loss investigation. The FAA approved the scenarios as test damage exemptions after evaluating them as part of the flight safety and flight risk analysis and confirming that they meet public safety requirements,” FAA officials said in the statement. “If a different anomaly occurs with the Starship vehicle, an investigation may be warranted, as well as if an anomaly occurs with the Super Heavy booster rocket.”
That agreement suggests that SpaceX has identified three potential ways in which its Starship or Super Heavy could fail (such as loss during re-entry) that the company and the FAA agreed would not require a lengthy investigation. The three scenarios did not appear detailed in the FAA’s 6-page release license.
For Flight 4, SpaceX intends to fly its Starship and Super Heavy boosters on a similar trajectory to its Flight 3 test, a mission that would launch the Starship vehicle up to orbital velocity, then re-enter the ship over the Indian Ocean . Meanwhile, the Super Heavy booster is expected to turn toward South Texas and make a controlled “landing” in the Gulf of Mexico.
“The fourth flight test shifts our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse the Starship and Super Heavy,” SpaceX wrote in a mission statement. “The primary objectives will be to execute a burn on soft landing and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of the Starship.”
In recent weeks, SpaceX has conducted a series of fuel tests for both the Flight 4 Starship and its Super Heavy booster. Both vehicles apparently passed with flying colours.
“Starship is ready to fly,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday (June 3).