{"id":530,"date":"2022-03-02T15:23:44","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/02\/elon-musk-is-hopeful-texas-site-will-clear-approval-for-starships-first-orbital-launch\/"},"modified":"2022-03-02T15:23:44","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T15:23:44","slug":"elon-musk-is-hopeful-texas-site-will-clear-approval-for-starships-first-orbital-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/02\/elon-musk-is-hopeful-texas-site-will-clear-approval-for-starships-first-orbital-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk is hopeful Texas site will clear approval for Starship\u2019s first orbital launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/11\/22927706\/elon-musk-spacex-starship-update-boca-chica-texas\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/11\/22927706\/elon-musk-spacex-starship-update-boca-chica-texas<\/a><br \/>\n<code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<div readability=\"137.84487862641\">\n<p id=\"TweXgj\">SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he\u2019s hopeful that his company\u2019s launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, will receive regulatory approval to launch by March and that the first orbital launch of SpaceX\u2019s new Starship rocket will take place sometime this year. <\/p>\n<p id=\"VftEvY\">Musk made these comments during his first presentation on Starship since 2019, which he gave last night at the company\u2019s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Standing in front of a full stacked prototype of the rocket that towered high over the stage, Musk provided an overview of some of the latest specs of the vehicle, why he wants to pursue deep space travel, and when he expects to make all these plans happen.<\/p>\n<p id=\"cZYq8R\">It was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/10\/22925244\/elon-musk-starship-presentation-watch-how-to-start-time\">his fifth presentation on Starship overall<\/a>, with Musk talking for more than an hour on Thursday night. However, the CEO didn\u2019t provide any major new updates on Starship that he hadn\u2019t already divulged before. Some new details came in during the event\u2019s question and answer session regarding projected costs and future flight plans. But for the hardcore SpaceX fan, it was more or less a rehash of what Musk has talked about before. The timing seemed well-calculated, considering the Federal Aviation Administration is on the verge of deciding whether to clear Starship to launch to orbit from Boca Chica.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right\">\n<aside id=\"rDwVnB\"><q>The timing seemed well-calculated<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"vCrGmu\">\u201cLife can\u2019t just be about solving problems,\u201d Musk said about why the pursuit of interplanetary travel is worthwhile. \u201cThere have to be things that inspire you, that move your heart.\u201d It\u2019s a justification he\u2019s used in the past.<\/p>\n<p id=\"b4hyq5\">Starship is SpaceX\u2019s massive next-generation rocket, designed to take passengers and cargo to deep space destinations like the Moon and Mars. A completely reusable system, the spaceship is meant to launch to space on top of a giant booster rocket called the Super Heavy. Using its primary Raptor engines, Starship will be able to land on the surfaces of other worlds as well as back on Earth. The Super Heavy booster will also be able to land back on Earth after launching.<\/p>\n<p id=\"qVLcRw\">Perhaps the biggest topic that journalists wanted to know about was where SpaceX stood in getting its launch license from the FAA. The FAA is currently deciding whether to grant SpaceX approval to launch Starship out of Boca Chica, as the agency is responsible for ensuring that launches to orbit do not pose a hazard to uninvolved people or property. While the approval process has been highly polarizing, with some environmentalists contending that the FAA needs to conduct a more in-depth review of Starship\u2019s impacts on the surrounding area,<strong> <\/strong>Musk indicated that he thought the decision would go in SpaceX\u2019s favor. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a ton of insight into the way things stand with the FAA,\u201d Musk said. \u201cWe have gotten sort of a rough indication that there may be an approval in March.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"dDdy93\"><em>The Verge<\/em> reached out to the FAA for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.<\/p>\n<p id=\"mcpGss\">SpaceX has actively been developing Starship for the last few years now out of the company\u2019s launch site in Boca Chica. At the site, located just north of the border, SpaceX engineers have been pumping out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/8\/4\/21353439\/spacex-starship-prototype-test-flight-hop\">prototype<\/a> after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2020\/12\/8\/22163104\/spacex-starship-prototype-test-flight-boca-chica-altitude\">prototype<\/a> while conducting various tests with the vehicles. So far, the company has conducted a handful of high-altitude flights with the prototypes, launching them to more than 32,000 feet above the Earth before attempting to land them back down on the ground again. The goal was to test out Starship\u2019s ability to use its engines to gently touch down on Earth, a type of landing technique it will eventually use when landing on other worlds. Out of all of those tests, SpaceX successfully landed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/5\/5\/22421845\/spacex-starship-sn15-successful-landing\">only one prototype<\/a> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/3\/3\/22311916\/spacex-starship-prototype-landing-successful\">didn\u2019t explode afterward<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-left\">\n<aside id=\"CCLwlW\"><q>\u201cWe don\u2019t have a ton of insight into the way things stand with the FAA.\u201d<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"tyu34P\">Now, SpaceX is squarely focused on launching Starship to orbit to prove that the vehicle can actually make it to space. While SpaceX still may have more work to do on Starship to ready it for launch, a big roadblock standing in the rocket company\u2019s way is regulatory approval. And the FAA\u2019s decision-making process has been fraught with turmoil, as SpaceX\u2019s plans for Boca Chica have significantly expanded in recent years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"c0VwBi\">The FAA cleared SpaceX to launch out of Boca Chica back in 2014, even prepping a full environment impact statement, or EIS, to detail how the launch site would affect the surrounding area and wildlife refuge. But that approval was decided back when SpaceX planned to launch its smaller Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from the area. Now that SpaceX wants to launch Starship from Boca Chica, the FAA has to determine if the company can go ahead and launch to orbit regularly, if changes need to be made to the site, or if a new EIS is needed. The latter option would take a significant amount of time as the FAA consults with more experts and gathers more data about SpaceX\u2019s footprint at Boca Chica and its potential impacts on the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n<p id=\"go3BYk\">The FAA has said that it plans to make a decision by the end of February, making the timing of Musk\u2019s talk a bit more relevant, perhaps as a way to put pressure on the FAA. SpaceX is really banking on being able to launch from the Boca Chica site, which the company has dubbed Starbase. Musk argued that the remote site allows SpaceX to conduct more experimental flights than the company\u2019s other primary launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. \u201cBecause we have had a lot of launches going out of the Cape, we didn\u2019t want to disrupt the Cape activity, the operational launches, with sort of the advanced R&#038;D of Starship,\u201d Musk said. \u201cSo it was important to decouple the operational launches from the R&#038;D launches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"gQXVPP\">Musk did note that if the FAA didn\u2019t grant immediate approval for Starbase, SpaceX could use the Cape in the future. \u201cWe do have the alternative of the Cape, Musk said. \u201cAnd we actually applied for environmental approval for launch from the Cape a few years ago and received it.\u201d He noted that the worst-case scenario would be that SpaceX would be delayed up to eight months as the company developed a launch tower for the Cape so that Starship could take off there.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fKlPDX\">Even if Starbase does receive approval, it\u2019s unclear when SpaceX will actually be ready to launch. Musk said he\u2019s \u201chighly confident\u201d Starship will reach orbit this year and that SpaceX hopes to launch its first orbital attempt once the company gets the FAA\u2019s approval. But he provided few concrete details on recent progress developing Starship\u2019s hardware. \u201cI think we\u2019re close to having the hardware ready to go,\u201d Musk said. \u201cSo right now, I think we\u2019re tracking to have the regulatory approval and hardware readiness around the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><code><br \/><\/br><\/code><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/11\/22927706\/elon-musk-spacex-starship-update-boca-chica-texas\">https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/11\/22927706\/elon-musk-spacex-starship-update-boca-chica-texas<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he\u2019s hopeful that his company\u2019s launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, will receive regulatory approval to launch by March and that the first orbital launch of SpaceX\u2019s new Starship rocket will take place sometime this year. Musk made these comments during his first presentation on Starship since 2019, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,33,36],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-space","category-spacex","tag-spacex"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Elon Musk is hopeful Texas site will clear approval for Starship\u2019s first orbital launch - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/03\/02\/elon-musk-is-hopeful-texas-site-will-clear-approval-for-starships-first-orbital-launch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elon Musk is hopeful Texas site will clear approval for Starship\u2019s first orbital launch - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he\u2019s hopeful that his company\u2019s launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas, will receive regulatory approval to launch by March and that the first orbital launch of SpaceX\u2019s new Starship rocket will take place sometime this year. 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