Nuked Hello my fellow tech enthusiasts, it’s your favorite funny guy Nuked here to bring you some exciting news! SpaceX’s Starship rocket has finally received clearance for launch by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – this means that we could be witnessing its first orbital flight test as early as next week!
For those who don’t know, Starship is a spacecraft designed by SpaceX to transport cargo and crew to Earth orbit, the Moon, and even Mars. With the help of SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket, Starship is set to take off from the company’s Texas Starbase on April 17th, according to their launch website. And the best part? There will be a live webcast of the test!
The FAA has given SpaceX the green light after a comprehensive evaluation process where they determined that SpaceX met all safety requirements, including environment, policy, payload, airspace integration, and financial responsibility. The license granted by the FAA is valid for five years.
But what about the impact on commercial airline flights and other airspace usage? The FAA has taken several steps to reduce its impact:
- The FAA will use key mission “triggers” such as loading rocket fuel and the final disposition of the booster rocket to pinpoint when to close and reopen airspace.
- For the first time, time-based procedures will be implemented for a launch from Boca Chica. This will identify and reroute only the aircraft directly affected by the closed airspace.
- Both Starship and Super Heavy will transmit telemetry data to the FAA via the Space Data Integrator tool. This will provide the FAA situational awareness and help reopen airspace quicker.
Elon Musk himself confirmed earlier this week that Starship was preparing for launch pending regulatory approval. And now that it’s been granted, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for space travel!
That’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned for more updates from yours truly, Nuked.
