Regulators have slowed the pace of Starship launches over environmental concerns, but that may be about to change.
Later today, Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is set to conduct another test of the largest rocket ever built.
If all goes as planned, sometime after 5 PM ET, the giant rocket, known as Starship, will lift off from its launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship is set to fly part way around the world before landing in the Southern Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, its super-heavy booster will attempt to return to the Texas launch site, where two robotic arms attached to the launch tower will try to grab it in mid-air.
It will be the sixth test launch of the giant rocket, and its second in as many months. The tests are the latest sign that SpaceX intends to rapidly accelerate Starship’s development. Next year, the company has said it would like to conduct as many as 25 launches.
Up until now, environmental requirements have held back SpaceX. Under the current environmental assessment, the Federal Aviation Administration limits SpaceX to five launches per year. And earlier this year, the FAA delayed licensing of a flight after the Environmental Protection Agency fined SpaceX for violating the Clean Water Act.
But with President Trump’s election, those sorts of regulatory hold-ups may become a thing of the past. At a rally last month in Tempe, Arizona, Trump boasted that American astronauts would soon be headed to Mars: “Get that spaceship going, Elon”, he said.
