
With the Raptor engine being especially critical, Musk explained that continued failures in development could be as bad as to bankrupt the company entirely. In an open letter shared in December, Musk expressed displeasure with the workflows for the Starship, especially when it came to rocket engine development. While Musk had hinted at a launch in January, it soon became clear the date wouldn’t be possible. On Wednesday, Elon Musk clarified the schedule for his next-generation Starship rocket, saying that SpaceX hopes to perform the first orbital flight in.

In this file photo Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. There, the billionaire explained that work on the Starship had ramped up and that they were expecting to launch the rocket for its first orbital flight as soon as possible this year. SpaceX Will Hopefully Launch Its First Orbital Starship Flight In January, Says Elon Musk. In November, Musk appeared at a panel organized by the National Academies’ Space Studies Board and the Board on Physics and Astronomy. Some of those shifts have come due to production issues, while others have primarily been because of regulatory hurdles.

SpaceX has had the timeline for the Starship’s debut shifted on multiple occasions in the past. SpaceX is developing Starship to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars, and beyond. After that, the Starship will also come back to the planet and touch down in the Pacific. SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket will hopefully take its first orbital flight in May, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said. On the other side, the Starship’s upper stage will continue into orbit, where it will revolve around the Earth once. The rocket - which, as its name suggests, will carry most of the heavy equipment for SpaceX’s missions in space - is another cornerstone of the company’s plans going forward.įor now, the Super Heavy is expected to lift off and splashdown shortly in the Gulf of Mexico. It will mark the first launch of a Super Heavy rocket as well. The first orbital test is expected to happen with a fully loaded Starship, equipped with as many as six Raptor engines.
#Spacex will hopefully first orbital flight full#
They all flew a maximum of 10 kilometers into the air, so the company hasn’t quite been able to get the full assembly and test the Starship as they would like. Space Systems Command ordered five launches from United Launch Alliance (ULA) and three launches from SpaceX for national security missions on May 26. However, all of those have been with prototype upper-stage vehicles with a maximum of three Raptor engines. SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket will hopefully take its first orbital flight in May, company founder and CEO Elon Musk has said. It is worth noting that SpaceX has already handled several Starship test launches. We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test,” Musk said in his tweet, much to the relief of SpaceX fans. “First Starship orbital flight will be with Raptor 2 engines, as they are much more capable & reliable. We’ll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test.

First Starship orbital flight will be with Raptor 2 engines, as they are much more capable & reliable.
