![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20231115-Starship-Feature-Image.jpg)
SpaceX’s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket has been cleared for a second test flight Friday in an try to boost the unpiloted Starship upper stage into space for the primary time, the corporate announced Wednesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration granted SpaceX the required launch license Wednesday, clearing the way in which for liftoff nearly seven months after the rocket suffered multiple failures and blew itself up during its maiden flight in April.
Since then, SpaceX has implemented what company founder Elon Musk said were “well over” 1,000 upgrades and enhancements and carried out 63 FAA-mandated “corrections” designed to enhance flight safety and performance.
“The (launch) license applies to all phases of the proposed operation,” the FAA said in a press release. “After consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a written evaluation of the 2022 Programmatic Environmental Assessment, the FAA concluded there aren’t any significant environmental changes.”
The Super Heavy’s liftoff from SpaceX’s Boca Chica flight test facility on the Texas Gulf Coast is targeted for 8 a.m. EST Friday, the opening of a two-hour window.
The goal of the flight is to send the Starship on a looping trajectory across the planet before re-entry and splashdown within the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii.
The 30-foot-wide Super Heavy-Starship is the most important, strongest rocket ever built, standing 397 feet tall and tipping the scales at greater than 11 million kilos when fully fueled.
The 33 Raptor engines within the Super Heavy first stage are able to generating 16 million kilos of thrust at full throttle — roughly twice the ability of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket, currently the world’s strongest.
A successful flight test would mark a significant milestone for each SpaceX and for NASA, which is spending billions for a variant of the Starship upper stage to hold Artemis astronauts from lunar orbit right down to the surface of the moon.
SpaceX is counting on the rocket to vastly expand its constellation of Starlink web satellites and to power eventual low-cost government and business flights to the moon, Mars and beyond.
![](https://spaceflightnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/20231115-Starship-stacking.jpg)
Multiple test flights will probably be needed to reveal the reliability required for astronaut flights and it’s not yet clear how long that may take.
In its maiden flight, the Super Heavy-Starship launch pad was heavily damaged. Since then it’s been reinforced and equipped with a strong water deluge system to assist deaden the acoustic shock of engine ignition.
A brand new “hot staging” technique was implemented to start firing the Starship upper stage’s six Raptor engines while still attached to the Super Heavy first stage. The normal technique — engine ignition after separation — didn’t work properly through the first flight.
The Super Heavy also was equipped with a more robust electronic steering system to maneuver, or gimbal, engine nozzles as needed to take care of the right trajectory. And the rocket’s self-destruct system was upgraded to be sure that it’s going to act promptly if needed.
The brand new staging system will probably be put to the test about two minutes and 40 seconds after liftoff when the primary stage engines begin shutting down after boosting the rocket out of the dense lower atmosphere.
The Starship’s six Raptors will ignite while the upper stage remains to be attached to the booster, using a brand new vent system to deflect the exaust away from the primary stage. The Starship should separate from the Super Heavy moments later and proceed the climb to space.
While designed to be fully reusable, the Super Heavy first stage won’t be recovered. As a substitute, it’s going to perform rocket firings to decelerate as if it was heading for a landing pad, but will fall tail first into the Gulf of Mexico as a substitute.
The Starship’s engines, meanwhile, will proceed firing for one more five minutes of so. Then it’s expected to coast across the planet, falling back into the discernible atmosphere about one hour and 20 minutes after launch.
Just like the first stage, the Starship is designed to be reusable, but no recovery is planned for this initial test flight. The trajectory will carry the Starship to a Pacific Ocean impact north of Hawaii.
As SpaceX sums up the countdown on the corporate’s web page: “Excitement guaranteed.”