SpaceX, the leading aerospace company founded by Elon Musk, has announced the postponement of the launch of its Super Heavy-Starship rocket to Saturday. The delay is due to the replacement of a grid fin actuator, a critical component of the massive rocket.
This decision comes after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX the required launch license, following multiple failures during the rocket’s maiden flight back in April. Since then, the company has been hard at work implementing over 1,000 upgrades and improvements, as well as 63 corrections mandated by the FAA to enhance flight safety and performance.
The Super Heavy-Starship is no ordinary rocket – it is the largest and most powerful ever built, towering at 397 feet tall and weighing over 11 million pounds when fully fueled. It is set to be launched from SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility on the Texas Gulf Coast, with the ambitious goal of sending the Starship on a looping trajectory around the planet before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
A successful flight test would be a major milestone for both SpaceX and NASA, with potential applications for expanding Starlink internet satellites and powering future government and commercial space missions. During the test flight, the first stage booster will fall into the Gulf of Mexico while the Starship upper stage continues on its trajectory, splashing down north of Hawaii.
The new staging system will test the ignition of the Starship’s engines while still attached to the first stage, with no plans for recovery of either stage after the test flight. Multiple test flights are planned to demonstrate the reliability of the Super Heavy-Starship for future space missions, making this a crucial moment in the advancement of space exploration.
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