SpaceX just fired up another Starship vehicle, to prep for a test flight that’s likely several months away.
The company performed a “static fire” on Wednesday (Sept. 18) at its Starbase site in South Texas, briefly igniting the six Raptor engines of Ship 31, the upper stage of the vehicle that will conduct the sixth Starship test flight.
SpaceX posted a photo and two videos of the static fire — a common prelaunch engine test — via its X account on Wednesday night.
The newly tested vehicle probably won’t get off the ground for a while. SpaceX still hasn’t launched Starship’s fifth flight; it’s waiting for approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which isn’t expected until late November.
The FAA says that it and its partner agencies need more time to assess modifications SpaceX made to Starship’s configuration and mission profile for Flight 5, as well as new information about the test’s possible environmental impact. The company and its billionaire founder, Elon Musk, aren’t happy about the delay.
“Flight 5 is built and ready to fly. Flight 6 will be ready to fly before Flight 5 even gets approved by FAA!” Musk said via X last night, in response to SpaceX’s static-fire post.
And last week, SpaceX published a lengthy blog post, called “Starships Are Meant to Fly,” that expressed frustration with the current Starship situation and the regulations governing the launch industry more generally.
Related: SpaceX’s Starship won’t be licensed to fly again until late November, FAA says
SpaceX is developing Starship to help humanity settle the moon and Mars, as well as perform a variety of other spaceflight tasks. The fully reusable vehicle consists of two elements: a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, named Starship or simply Ship.
Starship has conducted four test flights to date, in April and November of 2023 and March and June of this year. The vehicle has performed better on each successive jaunt, and SpaceX declared the most recent mission a complete success.
