The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted Elon Musk’s SpaceX approval to proceed with the second launch attempt of its towering Starship rocket, the agency announced on Wednesday.
Following the FAA’s clearance, SpaceX announced on the social media platform X that it is “targeting Friday, November 17 for Starship’s second flight test.”
The launch window will open at 8 AM ET and remain available for two hours. SpaceX plans to livestream the Starship launch, with a webcast starting about 30 minutes before liftoff.
Starship’s first launch in April managed to fly for a few minutes before exploding mid-air, which caused significant damage to the ground infrastructure and sparked environmental concerns.
In response, the FAA, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), conducted a safety review before granting a new flight license for this second attempt.
According to an agency report released on Wednesday, the FWS found that the rocket launch and the resulting damage to the launch pad had no lasting negative impact on the surrounding environment.
However, the report noted that SpaceX will undertake measures to mitigate damage to the area, such as reducing sound waves and vibrations, assisting with fire suppression, and providing launch pad protection.
As a result, the FAA concluded that “SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, and financial responsibility requirements,” according to a statement released by the agency on Wednesday.
Starship plays a crucial role in NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon and is also central to SpaceX’s ambitions in the launch and satellite markets, offering significantly greater launch capacity than any other rocket currently available.
In recent years, Musk has shifted personnel and resources to the rocket’s development facility, Starbase, in Texas to accelerate the vehicle’s progress towards successful launches.
