SpaceX

Starbase General Manager Kathy Lueders said Tuesday that SpaceX’s plan is to make the company’s Boca Chica complex its “premier manufacturing, launching and operational center for our Starship.”

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk earlier this week announced on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was informed that approval for a second Starship orbital flight attempt “should happen” in time for the launch to happen on Friday.

SpaceX says it’s shooting for Friday at the earliest for its second Starship orbital flight attempt from Boca Chica/Starbase, “pending final regulatory approval,” according to the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.

SpaceX has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for a permit to release an average of up to 200,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day into South Bay at Boca Chica.

It’s been more than six months since SpaceX’s first Starship orbital flight attempt ended in the vehicle automatically self-destructing over the Gulf after veering out of control.

SpaceX has again revised its timeline for when the first Starship orbital launch is likely to take place.

SpaceX’s goal Thursday was to test fire all 33 engines of its Super Heavy BN7 booster simultaneously at Starbase/Boca Chica.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell announced Wednesday that the company for the first time will attempt to test fire all 33 of its Super Heavy booster’s Raptor engines simultaneously Thursday at Boca Chica/Starbase.

SpaceX conducted the first successful, full-scale “wet dress rehearsal” test of a Starship/Super Heavy on Jan. 23 at the Boca Chica/Starbase launch complex, clearing the way for the next big test: a static fire of all 33 of the Super Heavy’s liquid oxygen and liquid methane-fueled Raptor engines simultaneously.

Back in September, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said it seemed “highly likely” that the first orbital Starship launch would take place in November, though late October was also a possibility.