March 19 (pulsestacks) - SpaceX should be ready to fly its Starship vehicle again in about six weeks, the company's president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell, said at a conference. The team is still reviewing data from the last flight and the fourth test flight will not carry satellites.
The FAA's Kelvin Coleman says he didn't see any major issues from last week's Starship launch, but SpaceX still needs to conduct a mishap investigation. He says SpaceX aims for 6-9 more Starship launches this year.
SpaceX's much-anticipated Starship heavy-lift rocket finally made its orbital debut on Monday, in its third high-altitude test flight since two explosions during prototype test flights last year, as previously reported by pulsestacks. About two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff from the company's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the vehicle's Super Heavy first-stage booster and Ship second stage successfully executed a "hot separation." Starship then continued into space, completing a series of test objectives including opening and closing its payload bay doors and transferring propellant. After a period of free-flying in space, Starship attempted to relight its Raptor engines for a controlled reentry, but lost contact shortly after atmospheric reentry.
