SpaceX plans to launch the first orbital Starship test mission next year on the first flight to combine the vehicle’s huge Super Heavy booster with the Starship upper stage.
Musk said the orbital launch pad at Kennedy Space Center “will have similar, but improved, ground systems and tower to Starbase.”.
Musk did not provide a schedule for when the Starship launch facility might be ready at Kennedy Space Center, or where SpaceX will build the rockets that launch from Florida.In the last few weeks, crews have disassembled the suborbital launch mount at pad 39A, clearing the area for more extensive construction of the orbital launch pad.It’s also the only launch pad currently outfitted to launch SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, created by combining three Falcon 9 rocket cores to boost heavier payloads into space.
At that time, SpaceX planned to launch Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from South Texas, but the scope of the project has since changed to focus on development of the much larger Starship and Super Heavy.
The Starship architecture consists of a Super Heavy booster and the Starship vehicle, which serves initially as an upper stage during a launch into Earth orbit, then as a space transporter, and finally as an Earth return vehicle for payloads and people.Under NASA’s Artemis program architecture, astronauts will leave Earth on top of the agency’s government-owned Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, a powerful launcher almost as big as SpaceX’s Starship.The Starship launch complex at pad 39A could be used in the Artemis lunar campaign.SpaceX resumes work on Starship launch pad at Kennedy Space Center
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