Elon Musk’s spacecraft company SpaceX will launch a third test flight for its rocket Starship next week, the company said Wednesday.
The reusable spacecraft is still in development, designed to carry out missions to the Moon and Mars. Musk first unveiled his plans for the rocket in 2017, but it wasn’t until five years later that Starship actually tried to fly. The spacecraft exploded during its first test flight last April. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) investigated and gave approval for Starship to fly again last November. While that test flight went better than the first one, it still exploded — twice — minutes into the air. After another FAA investigation, SpaceX said it’s giving Starship another go next Thursday, March 14.
Starship is crucial for getting SpaceX’s Starlink satellites into space, for Elon Musk’s finances, and for NASA’s bid to beat China and put Americans on the moon by 2030. SpaceX has already spent billions of dollars from private funders as well as funding from the US Air Force and NASA to develop the rocket, with the total cost estimated to reach $10 billion.
Even once it flies without exploding, SpaceX will have a lot more to figure out before it can use Starship to take humans to the Moon and beyond. For example, space expert Tim Fernholz writes that SpaceX will have to figure out how to refuel the rocket for its second leg of the trip to the Moon once it’s already in space.
While some investors suggest SpaceX will be worth 40% to 70% more than its current value by 2028 and go public, SpaceX will have a hard time taking off if Starship doesn’t find a way to fly without exploding.