SpaceX wants to fly its Starship rocket into orbit around the Earth. Elon Musk’s space company has filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FFC).
The unmanned prototype of the rocket landed successfully earlier this month after a test flight over the United States. During previous attempts, the rocket failed to land safely or to keep it intact after landing, but this went well with the prototype SN15.
SpaceX is now ready for a bigger challenge and wants to fly the Starship rocket into orbit around the Earth. The application states that the space company wants to launch the rocket from its usual base in Boca Chica, Texas.
After about three minutes, the launcher used to launch the Starship rocket should detach. The launcher must then land in a controlled manner in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles from the coast. It is still unclear whether SpaceX wants to use a landing platform for this.
The Starship rocket will then have to orbit around the Earth. The test flight will take approximately 90 minutes in total. The missile will eventually have to land in the Pacific Ocean, about 100 kilometers from the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The application does not specify when SpaceX intends to launch the rocket. The space company says the test flight is necessary to collect as much data as possible. SpaceX can then determine whether the rocket’s design may need to be modified for future test flights.