The Starship rocket will soon begin orbital missions from a pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida’s iconic space center. There have been a number of stunning explosions during Starship test flights from a Texas facility that have left a strewn-about area.
Attempts to launch Starship from NASA’s Pad 39A, where the spacecraft may take off, could result in the destruction of critical equipment needed for ISS trips.
Elon Musk Gives SpaceX’s Starship Update As NASA Voices Concerns
On Monday, a NASA official told Reuters that the space agency wanted Elon Musk’s SpaceX to make sure that its plan to launch Starship from Florida would not jeopardize neighboring launch infrastructure that is crucial to the orbiting lab’s safety and security.
“Starship will be ready to fly next month” Musk tweeted on 14 June. He also promised, “We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter.”
We will have a second Starship stack ready to fly in August and then monthly thereafter
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2022
The major purpose of the totally reusable launch vehicle was to get mankind to Mars and make life multi-planetary. NASA’s Artemis III mission will utilize it to bring astronauts back to the moon and disseminate Starlink 2.0 satellites like a Pez dispensing machine.
Its explosion at Launch Complex 39A, according to Nasa officials in recent months, could essentially shut down Nasa’s main way of sending American astronauts to the station. NASA’s Space Operations Head told Reuters, “We all realize that if you had an early failure like we had on one of the early SpaceX flights, it would be quite devastating to 39A.”
SpaceX Has Plans For Launch Pad 39A
Hundreds of feet away from pad 39A’s launch tower, SpaceX has already invested substantially in creating a Starship pad. According to a source familiar with the preparations, it has replied by proposing to prepare its other Florida pad, Launch Complex 40, five miles away on Space Force grounds, with the capability to launch U.S. astronauts.
“Hardening 39A, or making the launchpad more durable to explosive Starship accidents and the huge pressures released by a successful Starship liftoff, is also something the business is looking into right now”, the source stated. Agency permission is required for both the strengthening of the 39A pad and the launch of people from Pad 40.
