Amid FAA delays, twin Starships stand tall in Boca Chica
Starships SN9 and SN10 stand tall at the Boca Chica launch complex. Image: Nicholas D’Alessandro, Spaceflight Insider
While SpaceX and Starship SN9 continue to face regulatory holds from the Federal Aviation Administration for flight certification, Starship SN10 has been rolled out to the launch pad.
The SpaceX Boca Chica family on full display, including Starship SN10 (left) and SN9 (far right), Friday Jan. 29, 2021. Image: Nicholas D’Alessandro, Spaceflight Insider
With SpaceX now targeting Monday, Feb. 1, for its next launch opportunity for SN9 test article, the Boca Chica workforce wasted no time in preparing the site for the test which will follow SN9.
Starship SN10 rolled out of the high bay mid-day Friday, Jan. 29, making its way to the pad for the first ever double Starship staging. The crowd was abuzz at the unprecedented sight, with many onlookers descending upon the site once first movement began.
With today’s move of SN10, SpaceX has put on full display their high level of confidence in flight readiness, given that it is right next to SN9, pre-launch. Today’s developments are a true showcase of the ever intensifying pace of Starship testing and development.
The SN10 Starship test article upon rollout in Boca Chica, Texas. Image: Nicholas D’Alessandro, Spaceflight Insider
Nicholas D'Alessandro
Nicholas D'Alessandro was born and raised in Southwest Florida. The seeds of his interest in Space Exploration were planted when the Shuttle's sonic boom upon re-entry would reverberate through his childhood home even across the state; the knowledge that a real life spacecraft was passing overhead and could have that effect was fascinating to him. A middle school field trip to the Kennedy Space Center cemented that fascination, and with an additional interest in the bleeding edge of automotive technology and Teslas, it was the story of Elon Musk's path to Cape Canaveral with SpaceX that finally led Nicholas to move to the Space Coast and, after joining Spaceflight Insider in 2020, begin documenting the dawning era of commercial spaceflight.
Biden takes over and spaceX gets kneecapped..
time to take the worlds premier space company HQ And launch facilities across the border
Amazing pics. Thank you. The last really highlights the challenges of all those welds and the first two resemble NASA’s promise from the 70s of routine access to orbit.
Routine access to orbits what a cool cool idea. Why did it take a businessman to come up with this idea and why did it take 60 years?