SpaceX explains Starship test flight delay, reveals new target date

SpaceX issued a statement regarding the extensive delays related to Starship’s fifth test flight (IFT-5). The aerospace company also revealed a new potential date for the next flight, which will come in November.

SpaceX has been attempting to bring Starship’s next test flight to fruition for some time now, and CEO Elon Musk said that IFT-5 would take place in early August. He revealed this potential date in early July as SpaceX was working to resolve issues from the fourth test flight.

However, that date came and went. As the company continued to await FAA approval, nothing seemed to move. This has now made SpaceX release a lengthy statement regarding the delays, what caused them, and what could be next.

SpaceX tiptoes toward Starship’s fifth test flight

Ready Since August

SpaceX said both Starship and Super Heavy vehicles have been ready to launch since the first week of August. The next flight will attempt the most ambitious objective in the Starship testing program: return the Super Heavy booster to the launch site and catch it in mid-air.

Each Starship test flight has resulted in subsequent advances in the program. Every flight has accomplished more than the previous, showing tremendous progress and giving credibility to Elon Musk’s goal of having unmanned missions to Mars in just two years.

However, SpaceX says the delays in the Starship program are a culmination of several things:

“It’s understandable that such a unique operation would require additional time to analyze from a licensing perspective. Unfortunately, instead of focusing resources on critical safety analysis and collaborating on rational safeguards to protect both the public and the environment, the licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd. At times, these roadblocks have been driven by false and misleading reporting, built on bad-faith hysterics from online detractors or special interest groups who have presented poorly constructed science as fact.”

Launch License Date Estimate

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has to approve the test flight to launch before SpaceX can make any moves.

Although the agency previously gave SpaceX a launch license estimate of mid-September, the FAA has given a new estimate because of a “superfluous environmental analysis”:

“We recently received a launch license date estimate of late November from the FAA, the government agency responsible for licensing Starship flight tests. This is a more than two-month delay to the previously communicated date of mid-September. This delay was not based on a new safety concern, but instead driven by superfluous environmental analysis. The four open environmental issues are illustrative of the difficulties launch companies face in the current regulatory environment for launch and reentry licensing.”

Rebuttal to Environmental Issues

SpaceX says there are several issues with reporting related to the environmental impacts of the Starship program:

• Water-cooled steel flame deflector:
  • SpaceX never operated the deflector without a permit
  • The deflector does not spray pollutants into the surrounding environment, and uses drinking water
  • SpaceX was asked by the EPA to apply for an individual discharge permit, despite the operation having “little to nothing in common with industrial waste discharges covered by individual permits.”
  • SpaceX paid fines “tied to disagreements over paperwork…so it can focus its energy on completing the missions and commitments we have made”
• Reports of operating in defiance of environmental regulation
  • SpaceX calls it “demonstrably false”
  • Argues delays in licensing are for “unreasonable and exasperating reasons”
  • FAA consultation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services evaluated sonic booms and found they have “no significant impacts to the environment”
  • SpaceX has extensive mitigations in place to protect birds near Starbase, and has for nearly 10 years
  • “To date, the monitoring has not shown any population-level impacts to monitored bird populations, despite unsubstantiated claims to the contrary that the authors themselves later amended.”
  • IFT-5 will take place outside of nesting season

With this being said, it will be interesting to see if SpaceX’s next Starship test flight will come sooner than November, although the FAA’s estimated date will likely stay in place.

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