this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
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The Federal Aviation Administration approved a commercial launch license Wednesday for SpaceX to fly its second full-scale Starship rocket as soon as Friday, seven months after the giant vehicle’s first test flight.If SpaceX executes its flight plan perfectly, the Super Heavy booster will fire its 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines for more than two-and-a-half minutes, guiding the stainless steel rocket through the atmosphere over the Gulf of Mexico.
Then, the booster will jettison to attempt a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship upper stage, with six Raptor engines, will light to accelerate to nearly the velocity required to enter a stable orbit.
Starship will coast about three-quarters of the way around the world before plunging back into the atmosphere for a targeted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii.
Clouds of sand fell several miles from Starbase, but none of this material was hazardous, federal officials wrote in their updated environmental review published Wednesday, several hours before the FAA issued the launch license for the second Starship test flight.
A pair of hot-fire tests of the Super Heavy booster in August provided important data on the environmental impact of the deluge system, which flows up to 358,000 gallons of fresh water onto the launch pad through a channel built in a massive steel plate installed under the pedestal the rocket sits on before launch.
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