Green light: SpaceX receives FAA launch license for Starship

Enlarge / SpaceX's Booster 4 is lifted onto its orbital launch pad in South Texas. Elon Musk/Twitter

On Friday afternoon, after much angst and anxious expectation from the spaceflight community, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a launch license to SpaceX to launch its rocket Starship from South Texas.

"After a comprehensive licensing evaluation process, the FAA determined that SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, payload, airspace integration and of financial responsibility," the agency said in a statement. "The license is valid for five years."

Receiving this federal safety clearance is the final regulatory step the company had to take before being allowed to fly the largest rocket ever built. Now, the only constraints on launch are technical issues with the rocket or its ground systems. SpaceX is expected to hold a final readiness review this weekend before deciding whether to proceed with a launch attempt.

That could happen as early as Monday. The company has a slew of road closures, temporary flight restrictions and notices to mariners in place for April 17. The launch window is expected to open at 7 a.m. local time in Texas (12:00 a.m. UTC). Backup launch opportunities are available on Tuesday and Wednesday.

SpaceX has been seeking federal approval for several years to launch the massive Super Heavy rocket, complete with its Starship upper stage, from Texas. The launch site is located near the Gulf of Mexico, just north of the Rio Grande and surrounded by wetlands. After completing an environmental assessment in June 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration said the company needed to take more than 75 actions to protect land and wildlife around the Boca Chica facility.

This week, an FAA official, speaking on the merits, said SpaceX cooperated with these measures. "So far they've done what they have to do when it comes to environmental impact," the official said. The FAA is responsible for security around the launch site and during vehicle flight. It carefully followed its procedures and adapted to SpaceX as the technical design of the Starship launch system changed.

SpaceX calls this Starship launch an "integrated flight test." This is the first time the massive Super Heavy rocket will take off and the first time the two vehicles will fly together. Under the nominal flight plan, the Super Heavy rocket will propel Starship into space and, after separation, attempt to make a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about 30-35 km off the coast of Texas. SpaceX will not attempt to recover the booster on this flight.

In the meantime, the Starship vehicle will attempt to climb to an altitude of 235 km and become "near orbital". The craft's engines will shut down after 9 minutes and 20 seconds of flight, after which the vehicle will coast for over an hour before entering Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. It will not complete a full orbit and is expected to splash at high speed about 225 km north of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. On the nominal timeline, this will occur 90 minutes after liftoff.

Enlarge / Preview of SpaceX's flight plan for Starship's integrated flight test. SpaceX

Because this is the first spaceflight for both vehicles, SpaceX is keeping the overall flight plan relatively simple. For example, Starship will not re-ignite its engines during atmospheric re-entry, nor attempt to make a controlled re-entry into the ocean. Essentially, the purpose of this flight is to...