New Delhi: Elon Musk said on Wednesday that the spacecraft developed by his company spacex and chosen by NASA for American returns to the moon would try their first orbital flight next year.
“We will do a lot of tests in December and hopefully launched in January,” Musk said in talks for the National Academy Room Study Council.
“There are many risks related to this first launch,” he said.
“So I won’t say that it tends to work, but I think we will make a lot of progress.” Starship has made several suborbital flights.
After several tests that ended with an impressive explosion, SpaceX finally managed to land the spaceship, which was designed to be reused.
For upcoming orbital tests, it will be decorated with a very strong first stage nicknamed super heavy.
Authorization of the US FAA is expected to be “around the end of the year”, said Musk.
After the proposed January test launch, he aimed for a dozen additional launches until the end of 2022.
He said Starship would operate to transport the burden outside the test framework “in 2023”.
NASA bet on the spacecraft to become landers used as part of their artemis program to bring humans back to the moon in the early 2025.