SpaceX’s Starship ready for first Orbital Flight in July – Elon Musk

SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk has said that his Company will be ready to launch its first orbital flight to space in July 2022. This follows from the conclusion of environmental reviews by the Federal Aviation Administration that SpaceX can conduct orbital launches of its Starship vehicle from its Texas test facility subject to the completion of at least 75% of safeguard and mitigation measures to protect the environment.

SpaceX must carry out these mitigation measures to protect the environment and further obtain the relevant launch license from the FAA. While Elon Musk is optimistic that the launch programs can commence in July, the schedules for the implementation of the mitigation factors have not been made known to the public.

Reacting to the FAA’s decision, the Company tweeted – “One step closer to the orbital flight test of Starship”. SpaceX Starship consists of a huge first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. SpaceX is developing the vehicle to take people and cargo to the moon, Mars and other destinations throughout the solar system.

NASA selected the Starship to be the first crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program. The program intends to take humans to the moon by 2025 or 2026. Elon Musk also believes that during this time frame, it is possible to start launching people to planet Mars.

We have seen the Falcon 9 rockets successfully deploy Starlink to orbit time and time again but with the Starship, its huge and humongous size will be a challenge to overcome. The Company has taking this into consideration with the Ship’s design and its state of the art raptor engines. The world eagerly awaits the success of the program as it could fuel the beginning of human tourism to space just like any other tourist destination on planet earth.