The first orbital flight of the Starship-Super Heavy rocket will not yet be for this month of August

Many are looking forward to it, but it seems that the whole first orbital flight of the new rocket SpaceX will not be not yet for this month of august. According to an application for a license to use radio-spectrum filed by the company with the FCC or Federal Communications CommissionSpaceX would prepare a 6-month window for the first flight. This window opens 1^er next september.

According to a post on the FCC’s Twitter account, this license was issued to SpaceX on Wednesday, August 10. However, commission officials insisted that it is not a flight license. It is only a specific radio license for test vehicles.

So, the FCC license is there, but it still won’t be enough for SpaceX to transition to the orbital mission. The company still needs to obtain a flight license from the FAA or Federal Aviation Administration.

Get ready anyway

Apparently, SpaceX has yet to obtain the long-awaited FAA license. In any case, the company prepares for the famous mission at its base in southern Texas.

SpaceX’s new rocket is consisting of two elements which are the Super Heavy booster and the Starship ship. These two parts have both been designed to be reusable and are each equipped with new generation Raptor engines.

For the first orbital mission, SpaceX will launch the rocket made up of Booster 7 and Ship 24. These two machines are currently undergoing tests, and the company recently carried out static ignitions of the engines. On August 9, Booster 7 ignited one of its 33 engines, and Ship 24 ignited a maximum of 2 of its own. It will still take time to test all the engines.

Waiting for the Starship-Super Heavy rocket

Even though SpaceX’s new heavy launch vehicle won’t take off this month, space exploration fans will still have something to quench their thirst. Indeed, the NASA announced that they were going launch the Artemis 1 mission on August 29. This is a very important step that will mark the start of successive flights to the Moon for the rocket Space Launch System and the capsule Orion.

Artemis 1 will consist of sending the Orion capsule without passengers for a 6-week mission around the Moon. The next mission, Artemis 2, will be similar to Artemis 1, but with astronauts aboard the Orion capsule. It will be during the mission Artemis 3 that SpaceX’s Starship will be put to work as it will transport NASA astronauts from the lunar station Gateway on the surface of the Moon.

SOURCE: Space.com