Awaiting FAA Certification For Fifth Test Flight

The next launch of SpaceX’s Starship Integrated Flight Test 5 (IFT-5) was originally announced as potentially happening in early August, as posted in July by Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter).

That schedule has obviously slipped a bit, and is now slated for the first week of September as SpaceX is awaiting the expected FAA certification for the launch.

The launch has already been certified by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Given the demonstrated progressive success of the last two launches there should be no reason to think the FAA is doing anything other than its usual committee-think in approving the mission.

The two stage Starship launch vehicle is the most powerful rocket ever built and consists of the 235-foot tall first-stage Super Heavy booster and the 165-foot tall second-stage Starship, referred to simply as Ship. The upcoming flight will launch from SpaceX’s Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, and will feature the first time Super Heavy is planned to execute a pinpoint landing back on its launch pad, assisted by the arms of the launch tower. Both stages are designed for reuse so a return landing of Ship will be incorporated into a future flight.

The previous four test flights have performed successively better on each flight. Starship is designed for launching missions to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

FMI:  www.spacex.com/