The FAA has delayed the completion of an environmental review of the program by at least another month.
The FAA has been working on a programmatic environmental assessment for months at the South Texas site where SpaceX develops, builds and tests its next-generation Starship vehicle. The final report on the PEA was expected to be done by the end of the year, after the agency published a draft in September.
The completion date was pushed back by the FAA because of the need to consult with other agencies and analyze the thousands of public comments submitted in response to the draft PEA.
The Super Heavy rocket is being lifted onto the stand.
The target date was changed again, to March 28. The same factors have pushed the target date to April 29 again, according to the FAA.
Today's news won't have much of an impact on the development timelines. The company will likely not be ready for the first-ever Starship orbital test flight until May, according to Musk.
A giant rocket-spaceship duo is being developed by SpaceX to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and other distant destinations. Musk thinks that the vehicle will make Mars colonization economically feasible.
There are some flights under its belt. In May 2021, a three-engine prototype known as SN15 aced a flight into the South Texas sky.
The new Raptor engine will power the spaceship. Each rocket-spaceship stack will require 39 Raptors for the first stage booster and six for the upper-stage spaceship.
One of the program's biggest challenges may be building enough Raptors to support Starship. The debut orbital mission is not yet ready because of an engine problem.
We will have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test, Musk said on Monday.
Mike Wall is the author of Out There, a book about the search for alien life. You can follow him on social media. Follow us on social media.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
