SpaceX receives launch license for Starship's 7th flight

SpaceX is undoubtedly celebrating the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarding the company a launch license for its upcoming 7th test flight of Starship.

The celebration isn't for the license itself but more so for the speed at which it was obtained, as the FAA only took about a month to evaluate the previous launch of Starship and issue the new license. This kind of timing is unheard of and has even resulted in SpaceX and company CEO Elon Musk publicly slamming the FAA and its regulatory hurdles for holding up the development of Starship. However, the license issuing for Flight 7 stands as an example of the FAA improving internal efficiencies.

SpaceX hasn't confirmed when Flight 7 will take place, but given the history of previous flights, they typically occur within weeks of the launch license being obtained. However, with Christmas around the corner, it might not be until mid-January we see Starship take flight again. As for the mission objective, while SpaceX hasn't released any details about Flight 7, it would be a reasonable guess that it will include another catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, as unforeseen problems that emerged in Flight 6 resulted in a catch attempt having to be abandoned.

Additionally, Elon Musk stated after Flight 6 that only one more splashdown of Starship is needed before the company would begin attempting to catch Starship as well as the Super Heavy booster. This means we could expect a Starship catch on Flight 8 if the splashdown of Starship on Flight 7 is successful.