On the X network (formerly Twitter), SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster are fully ready for the fifth test launch. Both passed the fueling check, as well as the necessary pre-launch testing of systems. The rocket can launch in the very near future. The only problem is obtaining a flight license from the regulator, and this can take months.
Image source: Spacex
According to SpaceX representatives, bureaucratic obstacles are beginning to resemble an artificial delay in issuing flight permission. The regulator goes into discussion of details that, by and large, are not critical. For example, changing the booster’s flight path led to a new environmental review, although this in no way would improve the safety of the launch itself. According to previous forecasts, permission for the fifth test launch may not be issued by the FAA until November, although the ship and rocket have actually been ready for it since the first days of August. August and September are already off schedule, and October may follow.
Meanwhile, the readiness of the rocket and Starship directly determines the return of man to the Moon – the first landing of astronauts on a satellite in more than 50 years. The Starship ship must deliver a landing module to the Moon, which is provided for by NASA’s Artemis program. Without it, the program will not be able to meet even greatly delayed deadlines.
In the comments under Musk’s laconic message about Starship’s readiness for the fifth flight, users are almost calling him to revolt. For example, advising you to “accidentally” launch a rocket during a countdown rehearsal. Elon Musk will not take such a step, but the public is clearly on his side, and not on the side of the officials. However, it is unlikely that the message about Starship’s readiness for the fifth flight is intended to attract a roll call of the company’s admirers. Perhaps Day X is really close and the rocket will soon go on its fifth test flight, the significant event of which promises to be the return pickup of the accelerator in the air by the “chopsticks” of the launch farm.