On the night of February 9-10, 2022, the American private space company SpaceX assembled a full Starship rocket for the second time at its test site in Texas. The giant rocket was assembled for the first time using a brand new assembly and launch tower that is about 150 meters high. A fully assembled Starship rocket is a whopping 120 meters high and should take people to the moon and to the planet Mars in the near future. Later today, SpaceX founder Elon Musk will provide another important update on the prestigious Starship project.
The fully assembled Starship rocket consists of two large components that are assembled at the launch complex using the new assembly tower. For example, the Starship spacecraft is lifted up using two "gripper arms" and then attached on top of the Super Heavy booster rocket. For SpaceX, the construction and testing of this new launch infrastructure was very important as it makes the way of assembling the Starship rockets less complex and speeds it up. This Super Heavy rocket stage is equipped with 29 Raptor rocket engines and is intended to take the Starship spacecraft into low Earth orbit after which the Super Heavy rocket stage returns to Earth for reuse. The Starship spacecraft itself is also completely reusable and can be used to launch both people and satellites into space. In addition, SpaceX's Starship spacecraft is already planning to take people to the moon again within a few years and even to the planet Mars. The fully assembled rocket is nearly 120 meters long. By comparison, the mighty Saturn V lunar rocket in the 1960s and 1970s was 110 meters long. A full assembled Starship rocket should be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo into space and will accommodate dozens of astronauts. On Thursday, February 10, 2022, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, will provide a major update on the Starship space project.
SpaceX plans to launch a Starship spacecraft into orbit for the first time in the next few weeks or months using a Super Heavy rocket stage. Normally, this important launch should have taken place as early as the end of 2021. The main reason for the delay is the approval SpaceX is still waiting for from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Earlier this year, the main US aviation authority launched an environmental review of SpaceX's activities at its Starbase test and launch complex in southern Texas. Due to the enormous expansion of this test complex, which is located in a nature reserve, and the plans to launch gigantic Starship rockets, there was also increasing criticism of SpaceX's plans by local residents and environmental organizations. As a result, the FAA launched an environmental study to determine what impact SpaceX's launches would have on the region. Without a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), SpaceX is not allowed to launch Starship rockets from this location.
