SpaceX could launch Starship again ‘in about 3 weeks,’ Elon Musk says (Image Credit: Space.com)
The third test flight of SpaceX’s giant Starship rocket could be just around the corner, according to Elon Musk.
“Starship were meant to fly and our next one launches in about 3 weeks, but I recommend waiting for a few more test flights before hopping on board,” Musk said Monday (Feb. 12) in a post on X .
The billionaire entrepreneur was replying to a post from the rapper Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), who had asked Musk, “Where my rocket ship?” The two moguls have known each other for more than a decade and have interacted frequently on X/Twitter over the years.
Related: See stunning photos and video of Starship’s 2nd launch
Starship were meant to fly and our next one launches in about 3 weeks, but I recommend waiting for a few more test flights before hopping on board @NICKIMINAJFebruary 12, 2024
SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and beyond.
The stainless-steel vehicle consists of two elements — a first stage called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. Both are powered by SpaceX’s next-gen Raptor engine, and both are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.
Starship has conducted two test flights to date, which occurred in April and November of last year from SpaceX’s Starbase site in South Texas. The debut ended with a controlled detonation just four minutes into flight after Starship suffered several major problems, including the failure of its two stages to separate.
The second flight went more smoothly; Super Heavy’s 33 Raptors aced their initial burn, and the booster separated from Starship on time. But both stages ended up exploding high in the Texas sky.
SpaceX has been gearing up for flight number three for a while now. Over the weekend, for example, the company rolled both Starship stages out to Starbase’s orbital launch mount and stacked them. But the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating what happened on the November launch, so it’s unclear when SpaceX will get a license for the upcoming launch.
Starship is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. It stands about 400 feet (122 meters) tall when fully stacked — but future versions will be even larger, according to Musk.
Starship “will be at least 10 to 15 meters [33 to 49 feet] longer by version 3,” Musk wrote in another Monday X post.
