SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that his rocket manufacturing company is eyeing launching its Starship launch vehicle nine times this year. The company is now prepping for the vehicle’s third flight test this week.
What Happened: Musk’s SpaceX is now preparing to launch Starship for the third time as soon as March 14 after receiving regulatory approval.
Starship launched for the first time in April 2023. On launching for the third time this week, SpaceX would touch three launch attempts in a year’s time frame.
Musk on X responded to a user who noted this and said that the company is eyeing an additional six launches or nine launches in total for this year, confirming older reports citing administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration Kelvin Coleman.
For the third flight, SpaceX aims to get Starship to space while achieving several technical objectives en route. The spacecraft will then re-enter Earth with a splashdown expected in the Indian Ocean.
Why It Matters: SpaceX launched the Starship for the last time in November. The spacecraft then reached space, making it the first starship to do so. However, the vehicle was destroyed after it lost contact with SpaceX base.
The rocket-making company touts the Starship as the world's most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, Moon, and Mars. It can supposedly carry up to 100 people on long-duration interplanetary flights.
NASA is currently relying on the success of Starship to land humans back on the moon. The agency expects to land two astronauts on the Moon no earlier than September 2026 in the Artemis III mission with a lunar lander variant of the Starship.
The last time humans set foot on the Moon was in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
Image: Created with artificial intelligence on MidJourney and Official SpaceX Photos on Flickr
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