(Washington) Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the Starship mega-rocket, developed by his company SpaceX and notably selected by NASA for the Americans’ return to the moon, would attempt its first orbital flight early next year.
“The first orbital flight, we hope to do it in January,” he said during a speech to scientists from the National Academy of Sciences, before adding later that the test could also take place ” maybe in February ”.
“There are a lot of risks associated with this first launch, so I wouldn’t say it’s likely to be successful, but I think we’ll make a lot of progress,” he added.
Starship has already made several suborbital flights: after several tests that ended in impressive explosions, SpaceX had finally managed to land the spacecraft, designed to be reusable.
For this orbital test, this time it will be decked out with an ultra-powerful first stage called Super Heavy.
Authorization from the US Federal Civil Aviation Regulator (FAA) is expected “around the end of the year,” said Elon Musk. “We will have completed the launch pad and the launch tower this month, and then we will do a series of checks in December,” he detailed.
“We hope to try a dozen launches next year,” the boss also said. ” Maybe more. ”
He also estimated that Starship would be operational to transport loads outside the framework of tests “in 2023”.
NASA has chosen to bet on Starship to become the moon lander used as part of its Artemis back to the moon program. The spacecraft will have to be placed in orbit around the moon upstream, and the astronauts arriving on board their capsule will embark there so that it takes them and brings them back from the lunar surface, in 2025 at the earliest.
But the boss of SpaceX sees even further for this “biggest rocket ever designed”: “what we seek to develop with Starship, it is a generalized means of transport for large quantities of masses or people […] anywhere in the solar system ”.
In his hour-long speech broadcast live on YouTube, the founder of SpaceX hammered home his vision: “I think it’s extremely important that we try to become a multi-planetary species as soon as possible. “Because” at the end of the day, […] the Earth will become uninhabitable, ”he said.
SpaceX has set up a factory to produce copies of Starship on a very large scale. “I think to become multi-planetary, we’ll need 1,000 ships or something,” said Elon Musk.