WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an updated license for the next flight of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle, clearing the way for a launch likely in the first half of January.
The FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation announced Dec. 17 that it issued a license modification for the suborbital Flight 7 mission. That flight will be similar to recent ones, with Starship/Super Heavy lifting off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility at Boca Chica, Texas. The Super Heavy booster will attempt a return to Starbase while Starship will fly on a suborbital trajectory, splashing down in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
SpaceX has not announced a date for Flight 7, but it is widely expected to be no earlier than the first half of January. The company has recently conducted tests of both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage in preparation for the flight.
“The FAA continues to increase efficiencies in our licensing determination activities to meet the needs of the commercial space transportation industry,” Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said in a statement. “This license modification that we are issuing is well ahead of the Starship Flight 7 launch date and is another example of the FAA’s commitment to enable safe space transportation.”
In October, the FAA did not complete a license modification for Starship/Super Heavy’s fifth flight until the day before the flight. That license modification required additional analysis because it was the first to attempt a Super Heavy landing back at the launch site, requiring assessment of sonic boom effects. Work was also needed to assess the impacts of SpaceX jettisoning a “hot-staging” interstage ring between Starship and Super Heavy into the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX had complained about the slow pace of that licensing effort, stating in September it had been informed that the analysis would not be complete until late November. The FAA defended its work at the time, noting that it was “doing everything we can to work with them as efficiently as we can.”
The license modification in October allowed an additional flight, which took place in November. The new license modification allows SpaceX to perform “multiple” flights on the same profile as Flight 7.
The license also includes five “test induced damage exceptions,” damage to the vehicle that will not require SpaceX to perform a mishap investigation as long as they do not result in casualties, damage to third-party property or debris falling outside of designated areas. Those exceptions are failure of the thermal shield during high-heating; failure of the flap system during high dynamic pressure; failure of the Raptor engine system during the landing Starship burn; failure of the Raptor engine system during in-space demonstration burn; and failure of Super Heavy systems during post-booster catch vehicle safing.
The upcoming flight will be the first for an upgraded version of Starship. Those changes, SpaceX said during the webcast for the previous flight, include stretching the vehicle for larger tanks to increase the amount of propellant it can carry from 1,200 to 1,500 tons. The forward flaps, used to control the vehicle during reentry, are smaller and in a different location to provide greater protection from the heat of reentry.