SpaceX Gets Starship Launch Permit

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The FAA has issued a launch permit for SpaceX’s test launch of its Starship spacecraft aboard its Super Heavy rocket booster with the earliest launch window opening at 8:00 a.m. April 17 with backup windows on each of the five following days. It’s the largest rocket combination ever built, towering almost 400 feet above the launch site at Boca Chica, Texas. Because of the complexity of the 33-rocket system and its sheer size, the FAA spent more than 500 days reviewing the application, the longest review period ever for a launch system.

The agency says SpaceX has fulfilled all the myriad requirements and safety mitigations and it’s satisfied the test can be held at least safely, if not successfully. “The FAA is responsible for protecting the public during commercial space transportation launch and reentry operations,” the FAA said in a statement to SpaceNews. “We carefully analyzed the public safety risks during every stage of the mission and required SpaceX to mitigate those risks.”

The main booster will fire for two minutes and 49 seconds before the second stage takes over for a nine minute and 20 second burn. By then, the Starship will be near Hawaii at an altitude of 150 miles, and it will reenter the atmosphere and fall into the Pacific. The whole system is designed to be reusable but there will be no recovery of the test components.

Russ Niles
Russ Niles is Editor-in-Chief of AVweb. He has been a pilot for 30 years and joined AVweb 22 years ago. He and his wife Marni live in southern British Columbia where they also operate a small winery.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. The FAA should NOT have any regulatory powers over space operations. The country must not let the FAA do to space exploration what it did to general aviation. The FAA needs to stay out of the way.

    • um… so who do you think should regulate it? The “Space Force” with zero knowledge of launch ops, much less the NAS and aviation in general? Some office in the Pentagon? Some Texas Boss Hogg?

      Or a federal agency with over a hundred years of protecting the flying public? The FAA is not regulating “space” operations, just what they do in the NAS. They really don’t care if the rocket violently disassembles itself, just so long as no one flying in our common national airspace is endangered in the process.

      • I too wonder why the FAA is regulating a launch.

        Sure; NOTAMS, airspace and the like however, does the FAA have experience in orbital mechanics to know that when SpaceX says the object will return and land at X, the calculations indeed indicate X? Or, are they just taking their word for it?

        Maybe AvWeb could do a detailed story on just what the FAA is regulating here?

        If I, Joe on the street want to launch a rocket from my back yard, what regulations are the FAA to enforce and why? Would I need a PPL? Drone License? Would a sport pilot certificate do? Does the rocket have an N number? Is it experimental, certificated? Surely I’m not operating under Part 91, but what if it’s a personal “flight”? Part 135? But I am “scheduling” the flight and holding out for customers…..121 then?

        • Hey “Joe on the street” you probably should take a look at Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 101 before you launch anything from your backyard.

          • Humm, seems to address unmanned “amateur” rockets.

            Is that how the FAA classifies SpaceX flights? And what if I wanted to climb aboard my “amateur” rocket for a $10000 hamburger?

  2. “The main booster will fire for two minutes and 49 seconds before the second stage takes over for a nine minute and 20 second burn. By then, the Starship will be near Hawaii at an altitude of 150 miles, and it will reenter the atmosphere and fall into the Pacific.”

    The wording of those sentences is misleading. After the second stage burn, about 12 minutes after launch, the Starship will still be over the Gulf of Mexico, heading east-southeast. The reentry and landing near Hawaii will be at the end of its one orbit, about 90 minutes later.

      • Not quite a full orbit, but according to my rough calculations, around 85% of one – which rounds off to one in my book.

        Bob’s point about the coasting phase of the rocket being ignored certainly stands.

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