Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Waiting for #5

Follow up to this post 

"Starships need to fly.  The more we [SpaceX] fly safely, the faster we learn; the faster we learn, the sooner we realize full and rapid rocket reuse."  

Like some of you, I'm anxious for test flight #5 of Starship. What's holding it up? 

Well, it's not SpaceX. "The Starship and Super Heavy vehicles for Flight 5 have been ready to launch since the first week of August."

"Unfortunately, we continue to be stuck in a reality where it takes longer to do the government paperwork (photo) to license a rocket launch than it does to design and build the actual hardware. This should never happen and directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space."

The FAA estimated a late September launch, but now has delayed it to late November. "[T]he licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd." 

Does the government have other issues going on here? A future post topic.

 from SpaceX

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