SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk on Thursday tweeted a dramatic drone video of Starship SN24 newly restacked atop the massive Super Heavy BN7 booster rocket at the company’s Boca Chica/Starbase launch site.
The video was accompanied by the Musk’s tweet “Starship preparing for launch,” tagged with a rocket emoji.
April could be the month SpaceX finally sends Starship on its inaugural orbital test flight.
Musk said at a Morgan Stanley conference on March 7 that the launch was “getting close” and that April was the target.
SN24 was restacked atop Super Heavy on April 1, the combined 394-foot vehicle held in the grip of the Boca Chica launch tower’s giant mechanized pincers.
In recent weeks a high-capacity water-deluge system has been installed to protect the launch pad from the extreme heat and pressure of BN7’s 33 liquid-methane and liquid-oxygen fueled engines all firing at once. Likewise, shields were installed on the launch mount to protect piping, control panels and other equipment.
On Jan. 23, SpaceX conducted a full “wet dress rehearsal,” involving every step leading up to an actual launch, and on Feb. 9 test-fired 31 of BN7’s 33 engines.
The first orbital test flight calls for Super Heavy to separate from Starship a little over two minutes after launch and land in the Gulf roughly 20 miles offshore. Starship would achieve orbit briefly before landing in the ocean inside the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range 60 miles north of Kauai, Hawaii.
Reuters reported on April 4 that the Federal Aviation Administration Command Center had posted a planning notice with April 10 as the primary anticipated launch date and April 11-12 as alternate dates.
The FAA, which still has not granted SpaceX the required launch license for the orbital flight, said in a statement that a determination on whether to issue the license had not yet been made and that the planning notice should not be interpreted as a sign that a determination “has been made or is forthcoming.”
Nevertheless, the FAA notice generated speculation online that the first orbital flight attempt could take place as early as April 10.
However, a Thursday announcement from Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. regarding SpaceX-related road and beach closures did not include April 10. Trevino announced closures for Boca Chica Beach and S.H. 4 near SpaceX — for “non-flight testing activities” — on April 11 from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m., with alternate dates of April 12-13 from 12 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Musk, at the March 7 conference, said the chance of success with the first orbital attempt is “greater than 50 percent.”
“I’m not saying it’ll get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement,” he said. “It won’t be boring.”
