Possibly by early May, or about eight weeks after IFT-3. This is according to SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell, at the Satellite 2024 conference on March 19. A usable date depends on getting an FAA launch license, as always.
Shotwell said they were still going over the data from the March 14 Integrated Flight Test, but expected to be ready to fly again soon.
“We’re still going through the data” from the flight, she said when asked about the analysis of data from the mission. “It was an incredibly successful flight. We hit exactly where we wanted to go.”
“We’ll figure out what happened on both stages,” she said, not discussing what may have gone wrong with either, “and get back to flight hopefully in about six weeks,” or early May.
The ball is in SpaceX's court while they prepare their mishap investigation, but the FAA doesn't sound too concerned.
Speaking at the Space Capitol III event by Payload March 18, Kelvin Coleman, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said he did not anticipate that investigation to turn up any major issues that could significantly delay the next launch.
“It ended in what we call a mishap, but at the end of the day we deem it a successful launch attempt,” he said, because it resulted in no injuries or property damage. “SpaceX was able to collect a great deal of data from that launch.”
He said he expected SpaceX to quickly provide a mishap investigation report, noting that after the second Starship flight the company completed that report in several weeks. “We expect the same to be the case here. We didn’t see anything major. We don’t think there’s any critical systems for safety that were implicated.”
Coleman went on to say that while they have approved individual launches up to this point, the agency wants to move to a process where the license is valid for a “portfolio of launches” rather than individual ones. That is particularly important, he added, because SpaceX is planning six to nine more Starship launches this year.
As for her view, Gwynne Shotwell added that her focus is getting Starship operational this year.
“I’d love to get Starship into orbit, deploying satellites, and recover both stages,” she said, “with rapid turnaround on those stages as well.”
IFT-3 launch on March 14 - pi day and SpaceX's 22nd birthday. Image credit: SpaceX
Excellent news. I look forward to seeing more, soon. Can you imagine where we'd be if this had happened back in 1980????
ReplyDeleteWhere was Mr. Musk back in 1980?
DeleteWell, he was 9 years old, so not doing much investing/building.
DeleteWhich pretty well answers Mr. Wilder's question.
DeleteThat seems super cool from a non-expert point of view.
ReplyDeleteOdd to think I live in a time where I can remember launches being unique events to launches become regular.
Does that brief widening of the flame about 3/8ths up from the bottom of the pillar of fire mean anything?
ReplyDeleteEngines gimballing, an engine(s) turning on, increase in fuel flow rate, a switch being thrown?
My guess is it doesn't mean anything in particular and figure it would probably look different at any random time earlier or later, but I defer to any of the Mechanical Engineers or other specialists who visit here regularly. There are two places above that where it's narrower, one right at the start of the flame pillar (the engine bells) and another right above that wider spot.
DeleteAm eagerly anticipating the final findings and what corrective actions will be/were applied. Like why the ship rolled and tumbled.
ReplyDelete