SpaceX plans to finally launch Starship next week

Elon Musk says Mars-bound rocket is ‘key to expanding life beyond Earth’

SpaceX is planning to launch its giant Starship rocket as early as Monday, according to a flight notice.

The 120-metre tall rocket is the centrepiece of Elon Musk’s plans to colonise Mars, with deals already in place with Nasa to use it to shuttle astronauts to the Moon.

Before it can transport any crew or cargo, the biggest rocket ever built must first complete an orbital flight test that will see it lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas, before splashing down off the coast of Hawaii.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted a planning notice this week stating that the expected launch date is 10 April, with backup dates on 11 and 12 April.

“The FAA has not made a licence determination for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy operation, and the FAA’s Command Center planning notice should not be interpreted as an indicator that a determination to issue a licence has been made or is forthcoming,” the agency said in a statement.

The FAA told The Independent that a decision would be made once it is satisfied that SpaceX meets all the necessary safety and regulatory requirements.

The evaluation process involves various components, including reviews on policy, payload, airspace integration, financial responsibility and environmental impacts.

Most of these aspects are formalities for SpaceX, though it is understood that an environmental compliance review could delay the granting of the licence.

SpaceX does not comment on the testing schedule of its Starship rocket.

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SpaceX has already completed a high-altitude flight test for an earlier Starship prototype, though many of the tests ended in explosions.

Mr Musk said last month that there was “hopefully above a 50 per cent chance” of his company’s rocket reaching orbit.

“I am not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement,” he told the Morgan Stanley 2023 Technology, Media and Telecommunications conference. “It won’t be boring.”

He added that Starship represented “the key to expanding life beyond Earth”.