After the last two historic test flights of SpaceX’s starship, the aerospace company is getting ready for its third flight test. The first two test flights of 2023 were conducted in April and the second in November. The company officials recently announced their plan to launch the third mission as early as February 2024.
On January 9, during a media teleconference which was organized to discuss latest updates to NASA’s Artemis moon program, SpaceX officials were present including the company’s Vice President of Customer Operations and Integration Jessica Jensen. While making an official statement
“From a hardware readiness perspective, we are targeting to be ready in January. And then, from an FAA licensing perspective, we’re getting a license for flight three,” Jensen said, referring to how SpaceX is already seeking approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for Starship’s third flight.
Jensen also revealed that SpaceX is already concluding on the implementation of corrective actions requested by the FAA after Starship’s second flight. Based on the effort put into action, the aerospace company is expecting FAA to approve its third test flight in February.
“We’re expecting that license to come in February. So, it’s looking like three will occur in February of this year.”
What We Should Be Expecting from Starship’s Third flight Test
On April 20th, 2023, SpaceX launched its first-ever flight of the starship stacked atop the super heavy booster. The first test flight of starship attained some level of success after liftoff. However, that flight ended in an unscheduled rapid disassembly in about four minutes after liftoff even before separation.
On November 18th, 2023, SpaceX attempted the second-ever test flight. The aerospace company recorded some level of success including 33 raptor engine burn of the booster, safe separation through a process known as hot staging and more.
However, the super heavy booster exploded shortly after the separation, while the starship ended in an unscheduled rapid disassembly in about 8 minutes into the mission. During the third flight coming up in February, the world is expecting SpaceX to achieve more success from the launch.
The aerospace company have always learned from their mistakes. This is why they achieved more success during the second test flight than the first test flight. Hopefully, the third test flight will be so successful that SpaceX will start considering launching humans into space aboard its sophisticated Starships.
Keep in mind that SpaceX has outstanding crewed missions into space using its starship. These include dearMoon mission that will carry the Japanese billionaire and other artist around the moon, Polaris Dawn mission and more. Hence, the outcome of the forthcoming test flight will determine when SpaceX will commence with these missions. Let’s wish them success.
