SpaceX is ready to bet the house on Starship’s first orbital launch from Starbase in Texas
next big rocket launch is around the corner: social media chatter picks up, hotels sell out, press conferences get underway, and thousands gather to support and spectate.
But this time, the buzz doesn’t revolve around Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Instead, all eyes are on the southernmost tip of Texas, where SpaceX is gearing up to launch its massive Starship system on its first orbital flight attempt.
If everything goes according to plan, this will mark the first time the combined system – Super Heavy booster below and Starship vehicle on top – takes flight from Starbase, a SpaceX-owned facility just outside Brownsville, Texas. Previous test flights, which often ended explosively, only featured the Starship vehicle itself, but this time the combined 400-foot vehicle is taking flight.
NASA SpaceX Crew-5 mission commander Nicole Mann honored
Voices:Female pioneers expanded access for women in space. Now we’re doing it for everyone else.
Part of NASA’s Artemis program
Though the space industry overall will be closely watching Starship’s first flight, one organization has a personal, far-reaching stake in its success: NASA.
The agency, looking to put humans back on the lunar surface before 2030, plans on using a slightly modified version of Starship to lower astronauts down to the surface. After liftoff of a Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule from KSC on a mission known as Artemis III, Orion will dock with a Starship waiting in lunar orbit, then take it down to the surface. It’s basically the futuristic version of the lunar lander used during the Apollo program – though factors of magnitude larger and more advanced.
lander program, plus an additional $1.15 billion for follow-on missions and upgrades.
“As part of (the original) contract, SpaceX will also conduct an uncrewed demonstration mission to the moon prior to Artemis III,” NASA said when the $1.15 billion second contract was awarded late last year.
A solid timeline for that flight is not yet available but will heavily depend on the success of NASA’s Artemis II mission, which is slated to fly before the end of 2024 but could slip into 2025. NASA just named the crew for that mission earlier this month. Those four astronauts won’t descend to the surface for that mission, but they will enter lunar orbit and become the first humans to do so since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Impacts on Texas and Florida
In some ways, Starship’s first orbital flight is the Brownsville area’s Apollo moment.
During a 2021 visit to Starbase by FLORIDA TODAY, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, there was a sense of camaraderie and mission – and casualness – that resembled what life was like on the Space Coast nearly 60 years ago. One prototype test at a time, the seemingly impossible was being made possible, all while the local workforce and population grew.
A guide to Elon Musk’s business empire in Texas
Rocket launch schedule:Upcoming Florida launches and landings
Unlike Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, there is no secure federal perimeter. There are no Space Force guards, no large warning signs, no police patrols. Almost anyone can drive right up to flight-ready hardware and experience the thrill for themselves.
“I truly believe in five, 10, 20 years, they’re going to be making documentaries about this just like they make documentaries about Cape Canaveral,” said Nic Ansuini, a content creator who moved to Texas in 2021 specifically to document Starship production progress.
And Starship’s orbital test flight means business for Florida, too: if all goes well with next week’s flight and the program overall, SpaceX plans on launching Starship from KSC’s pad 39A in the coming years. Missions with Starlink satellites, science payloads, and flights with crews destined for the moon and Mars are all in the planning phase.
As if tying history and the future together, a massive 450-foot launch tower stands ready to host Starship at pad 39A when it’s eventually ready. Just a few hundred feet away, the existing pad 39A tower, which once hosted Apollo and space shuttle missions, continues supporting Falcon 9 missions.
Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly.