Defying all belief in the previous timelines, SpaceX and what sounds like both local and federal agencies have begun preparations for Starship Flight 5 for no earlier than October 13. The mission will be full of high stakes both for SpaceX and NASA, which is hoping to keep the program on the right course ahead to meet Artemis Program deadlines.
SpaceX is making preparations at its launch site in South Texas, called Starbase, for its fifth flight test of its Starship rocket. Large equipment, like cranes no longer needed for launch, has been dismantled and moved off-site. Alongside that, work on prepping Starship’s flight termination system began Saturday, according to NASASpaceflight.
Previous timelines by the FAA stated that the administration would not be able to grant SpaceX a modified launch license until late November. This was due to inter-agency environmental reviews regarding the company’s use of its water deluge system and the splashdown of Starship’s hot staging adapter ring in a new location off the Texas coast.
In a new statement, the FAA has said it is still working towards getting Starship approved and did not give a timeline for when that could come. However, the language indicating it would not be coming until late November was removed.
Conversations about an October 13 launch date began when the U.S. Coast Guard issued a Notice to Mariners about hazard locations in the Gulf of Mexico for launch activities. Then, Texas officials posted road closures for State Highway 4, the road where Starbase is located.
While none of these notices guarantee a launch, they can easily be moved to fit new launch windows; these are the beginning of Starship launch procedures. Pairing this with SpaceX’s moves, it seems the Elon Musk-owned company is betting on FAA approval as soon as next week rather than in November.
High stakes to get it right
Starship Flight 5 will feature one of the biggest innovations (is that the right term for this?) in the rocket launch sector since SpaceX began landing its Falcon 9 boosters. SpaceX will make its first attempt to catch the Starship Super Heavy booster using two massive arms attached to the launch tower.
SpaceX says that during Flight 4, it landed its booster with centimeter accuracy out in the Gulf of Mexico, so it feels confident in making the catch attempt. However, the company is still risking a lot of expensive and slow-to-build infrastructure that could be damaged or destroyed if the catch goes wrong.
Because of this added risk, SpaceX has added a human-in-the-loop process to its launch and landing procedures for Flight 5. Before a landing attempt can be started, both automated checks and a manual confirmation by the flight director will need to be completed. Otherwise, Flight 5’s booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.
The upsides of making the catch will prove that the system is capable of greatly increasing flight cadence.
That increased flight cadence will give SpaceX’s second biggest customer, NASA (SpaceX’s first is itself with Starlink), more confidence in the current Artemis Program timelines.
While SpaceX promotes Starship as humanity’s gateway to Mars and dirt-cheap access to space, NASA has it slated as its critical tool for landing its astronauts on the Moon. Starship was selected as the first Human Landing System for Artemis and is set to be used for the Artemis 3 mission to return humanity to our closest celestial neighbor.
A failed catch attempt at best (it splashed down in the Gulf) would leave things mostly as they are now. However, a worst-case failed landing, with extreme damage to SpaceX’s launch infrastructure, could cripple Starship’s ability to reattempt launching for a while.
A second Starship launch pad, “Pad B,” is in the works and has had its tower constructed, but a lot more work is needed to get it operational.
However, none of this will fix Artemis’s political and budgetary issues that could already plague it from meeting any of its milestones.
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