BOCA CHICA, Texas – SpaceX’s mammoth moon rocket could have its first integrated test flight by the end of the month.
The commercial space company tweeted Thursday that Starship, its nearly 400-foot-tall rocket, was now fully stacked at Starbase, SpaceX’s launch facility in Texas.
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SpaceX said it would conduct a launch rehearsal next week. If all goes well and the company gets regulatory approval, an integrated flight test would follow a week later, according to the tweet.
That could put a launch as early as April 17.
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Starship fully stacked at Starbase. Team is working towards a launch rehearsal next week followed by Starship’s first integrated flight test ~week later pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/9VbJLppswp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 6, 2023
SpaceX designed Starship to be fully reusable, with the goal of taking people and cargo to the Moon and Mars eventually. That includes the rocket’s super heavy first stage which, like other first-stage rockets built by SpaceX, is meant to land back on Earth after launch.
Last November, NASA selected Starship to support a sustained program on the Moon with the Artemis IV mission.
SpaceX is also building a Starship launch facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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