The time has finally arrived. SpaceX has been granted a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform Starship's second orbital launch attempt.
The last orbital launch attempt took place on April 20, and while Starship managed to gain altitude much further than SpaceX anticipated it would, it did end in a fiery, purposeful explosion. A fire on the rocket unfortunately severed communications with ground teams, resulting in no separation between the first and second stages. This separation failure caused the rocket to begin to tumble, and ultimately, the decision to abort the mission and initiate the rapid disassembly protocol - boom.
Shortly after the first launch, SpaceX announced it had learned quite a lot from Starship's first orbital test flight and had implemented a range of new changes to the design to prevent the critical point of failure that presented itself during the first flight. Now it's time to take to the skies again, with SpaceX announcing that all the necessary regulatory I's have been dotted and T's crossed as it has been granted a launch license.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken to his X account to announce that the company needs to replace a grid find actuator on Starship, which will push the launch back to Saturday this week. Initially, SpaceX was targeting Friday, November 17, for launch, but due to this fin replacement, it will now occur on Saturday, November 18.
Best of luck to SpaceX, as Starship reaching orbit will be one of, if not the biggest step humanity has taken toward becoming a multi-planetary species.
