SpaceX CEO Elon Musk just shared some stunning visuals of Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas launch site with an exciting update for Starship enthusiasts. “Starship preparing for launch,” he said in a video tweet.
SpaceX has developed Starship 24 (Ship 24) and Super Heavy Booster 7 prototypes for the first orbital flight test.
In Musk’s latest teaser, we can see the highlights of Starship 24 getting stacked onto Booster 7 most probably for the last time before the 1st orbital flight.
In his previous updates, Elon Musk shared an estimated date of February or March for the 1st Starship orbital flight test. SpaceX seemed to follow the timeline as it conducted a full wet dress rehearsal on Ship 24 and a 31-engine static fire test on Booster 7 in February.
The lack of approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delayed the Starship orbital flight tests last year. At last, SpaceX acquired environmental compliance approval from the FAA in July 2022.
After that technical issues, testing, and needed upgrades to Starship, Super Heavy, and Raptor engines resulted in the suspension of the 1st Starship orbital flight. Now SpaceX seems to have gotten rid of the hurdles and is ready for the test.
Starship 1st Orbital Flight Dates
One SpaceX fan found out that a NOTAM (Notice to AirMen/AirMissions) has been issued to the Mexican aviation authorities to warn them of the Starship flight.
This NOTAM shows a possible Starship orbital flight window from Monday 10th to Wednesday 12th of April. The flight window time starts daily at 7 AM CDT (1200 UTC) and ends at 11 AM CDT (1600 UTC).
Rumors of Starship’s 1st orbital flight test getting canceled on 10th April are also circulating social and mainstream media. But the aviation NOTAM evidence presented in the above tweets indicates that the 10th to 12th April dates are more concrete.
Elon Musk sharing the preparation video of Starship at this time also suggests that the timeline of the 1st orbital flight test is very close now. Starship making it to orbit for the first time will be a great milestone for SpaceX in advancement towards the Moon and Mars missions of the future.
Until the real Starsbip orbital flight test takes place, let’s watch and enjoy the animation of this whole event visualized in a 3D animation by an artist below.
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- SpaceX announces Starship’s Flight 12 launch date
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- Starship Flight 12: Booster 19’s 10-engine static fire ends abruptly, SpaceX prepares for a 33-engine static fire test
- Starship Flight 12: V3 Booster 19 shows better propellant load speeds, static fire next with only 10 Raptor 3 engines
- Starship Flight 12: SpaceX to test Raptor 3 engines on the V3 Booster 19 for the first time
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