FAA approves SpaceX’s Starship rocket for a second launch

After months of investigation and an environmental review, the FAA has given SpaceX the go ahead for its second launch of Starship. Now it’s up to SpaceX to get the vehicle ready to fly.

FAA gives Starship green light

Just as Elon Musk said, the FAA has given SpaceX the okay to fly its second Starship rocket from Starbase, Texas ahead of Friday’s launch attempt. The company has already stated that the window will open at 7:00 A.M. CT on Friday, November 17, “pending regulatory approval,” which it now has.

It has been a long process for SpaceX to get to this point. The first flight of Starship took place on April 20 and flew threw the point of stage separation before the vehicle lost controlled. While it didn’t make it to space, it did make for a great test for gathering flight data.

The stakes are a bit higher now, SpaceX has only a few more years to get Starship flying regularly and working enough to serve as NASA’s Artemis lunar lander. The company has made several changes after completing a mishap investigation with the FAA and the government agency has closed out its safety investigation into the vehicle.

All that remained was an environmental review by the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine if the pad modifications made after April’s flight met all requirements. The service published its findings Wednesday morning finding that SpaceX’s deluge system would not change its assessment of the Starbase facility. So while yes, Starship launches from South Texas might have some effect on the wildlife, the company is still okay to launch from there.

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So what do we expect now?

Well if you wanna watch this launch you better get your butts to South Texas or set your alarms accordingly. Right now SpaceX is targeting a 7:00 A.M. CT (8:00 A.M. ET and 5:00 A.M. PT) launch window.

The likely hood of that happening is slim as this will only be the second flight of a very much green rocket. However, you’ll want to wake up early that day to track its progress to know if it will launch or not. Cameron County has a road closure posted for 12:00 A.M. CT, so expect launch activity to pick up early in the morning.

You’ll be able to find early morning coverage of the launch by both NASASpaceFlight (not affiliated with the agency) or Everyday Astronaut before SpaceX’s coverage goes live.

For stacking, as I’m writing this it sounds like SpaceX is getting ready to start lifting the Starship vehicle on top of the Super Heavy booster. That is expected to be completed today with further launch closeouts taking place tomorrow.

If SpaceX can’t launch on Friday, a delay to Monday could happen. Usually SpaceX can’t close the road on weekends but this could be different for launches. We’ll have to wait and see.