Elon Musk’s Mars rocket Starship moves to launch pad as orbital test flight looms
- zarasushmaa
- Jul 7, 2022
- 2 min read
A prototype of Elon Musk’s Mars rocket, known as Starship, was moved to its launch pad on Wednesday in preparation for an orbital test flight.
Images published by SpaceX showed Ship 24 being taken to a pad in Starbase, the launch site the company uses in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship is set to be the world’s most powerful rocket and SpaceX plans to use it to send humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
“Ship 24 was transported to the pad at Starbase in preparation for the first orbital flight test of Starship,” SpaceX said on Twitter.
Starship has been in development for many years and has completed high-altitude tests, but it has not yet completed an orbital flight.
No launch licence yet
Before the test flight can go ahead, SpaceX must obtain a launch licence from the Federal Aviation Administration in the US.
The company also has to meet 75 conditions set by the organisation to continue its work at Starbase.
These include addressing environmental concerns such as the effect of its work on wildlife and the number of road closures it requires.
Elon Musk confident Starship will be ready for flight soon
Mr Musk previously said Starship would be ready for a test flight in July.
“I was in the high bay and mega bay late last night reviewing progress,” Mr Musk said on Twitter in June.
“We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter.”
In May last year, a Starship prototype completed a high-altitude test, including the rocket's first successful take-off and touchdown.
The system is fully reusable and includes a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and an upper stage spacecraft called Starship.
Before the orbital test flight, there could be a static fire test, a process in which the engines are ignited to test whether the rocket is ready to launch without it taking off.
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