Elon Musk / Twitter
SpaceX has finally received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch its Starship prototype vehicle SN9 in South Texas.
The notice came early Tuesday morning, when the FAA posted “The launch of the SpaceX Starship is outside of Boca Chica, with no major consequences,” as part of its daily planning advice. The handful of locals in Boca Chica were also notified this morning of the need to evacuate their homes.
If you have been following this saga, this approval has been coming for a long time. The company first made final preparations for a launch more than a week ago, but an effort on Monday, January 25, was finally put off. Last Thursday, SpaceX went so far as to evacuate nearby residents, abandon local sheriffs near the beaches and fully refill the vehicle. Weather conditions were perfect.
But the vehicle went nowhere because it did not have the permit to take a 10km flight test. While Starship ventilated liquid oxygen on the launch pad, SpaceX founder and chief engineer Elon Musk pulled out on Twitter. “The FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure,” Musk said. A similar stare occurred Friday morning as preparations were made for a launch. Yet no flight permit came.
Since then, sources have indicated that the FAA was extra careful in approving the SN9 flight after there were irregularities during the approval process for the SN8 flight in December from South Texas. Honestly, there were all sorts of rumors flying around, so without an official statement, it’s hard to know for sure what happened. But it seems clear that the FAA has followed a reasonable process to ensure that SN9 would be as safe a flight as possible for local property near the launch site.
Now this regulatory drama will deteriorate as SN9 is the center of attention. It will start on a beautiful background, as SpaceX has already moved a second Starship prototype to a second nearby launch site. This SN10 vehicle could very well be launched later this month as SpaceX accelerates its test flight program.
The nominal plan is for the SN9 prototype to rise to an altitude of about 10 km and then maneuver a “belly flop” to simulate the bleeding of energy during a return through Earth’s atmosphere. As it approaches the surface, this Starship prototype will reorient itself and land near the launch pad. It was this last part – which carried out a final landing maneuver – that was undone with SN8’s spectacular, fiery downfall in December.
SpaceX is expected to hold a webcast of the launch effort on Tuesday – the timing of which is of course uncertain – and we’ll embed it below when it launches live.