Elon Musk's SpaceX made final preparations early on Monday to launch its powerful new Starship rocket system to space for the first time, on a brief but highly anticipated uncrewed test flight from the Gulf Coast of Texas.
The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet high, was due for blastoff from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that opens at 8 a.m. EDT .The test mission, whether or not its objectives are entirely met, represents a key milestone in SpaceX's ambition of sending humans back to the moon and ultimately to Mars - also the central goal of a renewed NASA spaceflight program intended to integrate the Starship.
"Probably, tomorrow will not be successful, he said. "It's just a very fundamentally difficult thing." But neither stage will be recovered for the expendable first test flight to space, expected to last no more than 90 minutes. The Federal Aviation Administration just last Friday granted a license for what would be the first test flight of the fully stacked rocket system, clearing a final regulatory hurdle for the long-awaited launch.
Starship's blazing re-entry over the Pacific will test its ability to aerodynamically steer itself using large flaps and for its heat shielding to withstand the intense friction generated as it plummets through the atmosphere.
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