(Washington) SpaceX announced Thursday that it plans to conduct a dress rehearsal next week for the first flight of its Starship rocket, designed to take humans to the Moon and Mars, a test flight that could take place the following week.
Posted at 7:40 p.m
“Starship is complete,” the space company said in a tweet, along with photos of the rocket with all its phases — the first and second have so far only conducted test flights separately.
“The team is working to conduct a launch rehearsal next week, followed by Starship’s first integrated test flight approximately a week later, pending regulatory approvals. »
SpaceX needs a green light from the US Civil Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch such a flight.
The company in February conducted an impressive test of Starship’s 33 Raptor first stage engines, dubbed Super Heavy, at its base in Boca Chica in far south Texas.
For a few seconds, 31 of the 33 engines had ignited with a great deal of noise, “enough […] achieve orbit! shouted SpaceX boss Elon Musk on Twitter.
Only the second stage of the rocket made suborbital test flights, several of which ended in impressive explosions.
Starship has been chosen by NASA to land its astronauts on the moon during the Artemis 3 mission, officially scheduled for 2025.
The crew of Artemis 2, which will have to fly to the moon and then bypass it without landing there, will be transported by NASA’s SLS rocket, currently the most powerful in the world… while waiting for Starship.