SpaceX Could Get FAA Launch License in October for Starship Orbital Test Flight

The Federal Aviation Administration could finish its reviews and issue a launch license next month for SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket, the agency’s acting administrator said. 

However, the FAA license would need to be accompanied by an environmental review and approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg told reporters at an aerospace conference in Washington.

“I think we’re working well with them and been in good discussions with them,” she said Wednesday. ”I think we’re optimistic sometime next month. I think we’ve made a lot of progress in looking through those items.”

SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Monday that the company has addressed 57 of the 63 corrections the FAA identified following a mishap investigation into the spacecraft’s first orbital test flight in April from South Texas. The agency informed the company Sept. 8 that it had concluded its probe of the launch.

Starship, the largest rocket in U.S. space history, flew to an altitude of about 26 miles before veering off course; mission controllers then sent a command for the Starship to detonate, although the flight termination system also malfunctioned and did not operate as quickly as required, according to the inquiry.

SpaceX would still need a separate environmental approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before a launch. Trottenberg did not say how long that review, which is conducted with FAA input, might take.

“They have 190 days to do it. I don’t think it would take them that long but I don’t want to speak for them,” she said.

The April Starship launch sparked a brush fire that burned nearly four acres and left U.S. wildlife officials surprised by the extent of the damage surrounding the launch pad, which was severely damaged by the engines’ thrust, according to agency emails that Bloomberg News obtained last month.

SpaceX has made major modifications to the launch pad, including a new water deluge system designed to reduce the amount of debris Starship sends flying.

The rocket is a critical evolution for SpaceX, the vehicle NASA plans to use to land astronauts on the moon later this decade and with which Musk plans to send colonists to Mars.