Brownsville, Texas – SpaceX has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to launch its Starship megarocket for the eighth time. The upcoming Flight 8 of Starship is scheduled for Monday evening in South Texas at Starbase near Brownsville.
The FAA recently issued a license modification allowing SpaceX to proceed with the launch after determining that all safety, environmental, and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight had been met. This comes after a partial success in the previous Starship launch on January 16th, where the Super Heavy booster was successfully caught using the “chopstick” arms of the launch tower, but the upper stage experienced a propellant leak and exploded over the Atlantic Ocean.
Despite ongoing investigations into the mishap of the previous flight, SpaceX is moving forward with Flight 8. The company aims to once again attempt a Super Heavy booster catch while the Starship’s upper stage, known as Ship, will make a suborbital journey around Earth before landing in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia.
During Flight 8, Ship will be carrying mock versions of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband satellites. In the previous flight, Ship carried 10 dummy Starlinks but was unable to deploy them into space. This time, Ship will attempt to deploy four payloads as it travels on its suborbital trajectory.
The launch window for Flight 8 opens at 6:30 p.m. EST (2330 GMT; 5:30 p.m. local Texas time) on Monday. Those interested in watching the launch live can do so on Space.com. SpaceX’s continuous efforts to improve the capabilities of their Starship megarocket demonstrate the company’s commitment to advancing space exploration and technology.