Musk’s SpaceX, an incredulous spacecraft manufacturing company is distinctively known as a champion of integration – where rockets and other space-related tech is built from recycled parts, reducing wastages to increase affordability.   

SpaceX has managed to put Starlink into orbit, a massive constellation of low-altitude satellites which connects underserved areas of the world to the internet. 

Starlink and the recently launched Starship, are less of an opportunity for being notches up into SpaceX’s portfolio and more of the stepping stones and central pillars aligned to Musk’s space exploration’s ultimate dream – going to Mars. 

The tech titan has always made no secret of his dream to make human colonies on the Red Planet by 2050, envisioning the day when the world will witness his triumph of landing a rocket on the Martian surface successfully. 

“A spacefaring civilization is all about believing in the future, thinking it will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”
– Elon Musk

SpaceX Starship Launch Progress

One of SpaceX’s most ambitious projects to fuel the dream of Mars is launching Starship – a completely reusable and repurposable rocket transportation system that takes people and goods to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. In the last two years, SpaceX has unfortunately delayed its starship launch innumerable times, owing to pending licensing requisites from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 

Just weeks after firing all other engines to test the Starship launch vehicle, Musk’s latest tweets display the decision of gearing up to conduct the maiden orbital flight of the “Starship Super Heavy Rocket” as early as this week. 

The FAA also posted a notice for SpaceX’s Starship launch date buffer window for its orbital flight between April 10 – April 12, 2023, with backup dates listed as April 18 through 21. The timing frame for all dates is between 8:00 – 11:05 AM Eastern time. 

Starship fully stacked at Starbase. Team is working towards a launch rehearsal next week followed by Starship’s first integrated flight test ~week later pending regulatory approval pic.twitter.com/9VbJLppswp

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 6, 2023

This test mission marks the first launch of the fully-stacked Starship rocket system which is SpaceX’s 394-ft tall rocket sitting on top of a ‘super heavy’ first-stage booster consisting of 33 rocket engines. Starship’s Super Heavy booster is expected to be rocketed up from SpaceX’s Starbase facilities in Boca Chica, Texas and deploy the Starship second stage into space to complete its maiden orbital before reentering Earth and splashing miles off the coast of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. 

The aerospace company had fully integrated Starship with the booster and filled its fuel tank to full capacity. SpaceX’s Starship launch practice for its Super Heavy booster had survived a scintillating conclusion at the beginning of this year when as part of the Boca Chica SpaceX launch, the crew weighted the rocket with 10 million pounds of propellant. 

SpaceX And FAA: A Saga Of Launch Approvals

Although Starship’s Super Heavy booster sits on the pedestal of being powered as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle to ever be developed, the ability to hoist more than 100 metric tonnes to Earth’s orbit is privy to the FAA’s acquiescence. 

The Elon Musk-led company still seeks the launch license for its Texas-based first orbital Starship test flight from the FAA. 

Starship is ready for launch 🚀

Awaiting regulatory approval

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2023

In a statement to the press, the FAA clarified the notion of its planning notice having no influence over its licensing regulations. 

“The FAA has not made a license determination for the SpaceX Starship Super Heavy operation. FAA Command Center’s planning notice will not, and should not be interpreted as an indicator that a determination to issue a license has been made or is forthcoming.” 

Yet, reports from a source close to the issue affirm that SpaceX’s launch license for its Starship test could be granted by the FAA by today, but also cautioned that the licensing process is due to delays due to environmental compliance reviews. 

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NASA and The Biden Administration

The Biden administration’s support of NASA has not gone unnoticed. In December 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson commented, “Since President Biden and Vice President Harris were sworn in one year ago, their administration has made generational progress for Americans – and made NASA a priority. I am proud of the work the agency has done to support this administration’s priorities on climate change, global leadership, diversity, equity, STEM education, and so much more. And we all should look forward to an even more robust future as NASA continues to explore the heavens and benefit life here on Earth.”

Last year, the Biden administration announced that they will extend their cooperation to the International Space Station (ISS) operations through 2030, and will continue to work with international partners in Europe (European Space Agency), Japan (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), Canada (Canadian Space Agency), and Russia (State Space Corporation Roscosmos). 

NASA’s Futuristic Vision

NASA’s fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. The endowment comes at an awkward time as the space agency was recently criticized for underestimating costs related to the Artemis program, a planned uncrewed test flight for NASA’s program that will study the Moon and Mars.

Artemis I is the first of a series of complex space missions planned for deep space exploration and to study the capability of human existence beyond the planet. It will be the first flight of the Orion MPCV and is scheduled to take off from Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center sometime in May 2022. The second flight will carry humans and will test Orion’s critical systems. NASA also has plans to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon as part of the program. 

NASA’s plans for international space collaborations also seems uncertain as tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to affect future partnerships.

If NASA receives the $24 billion, they have plans to spend a major chunk of it in studying the solar system ($3.1 billion), Earth monitoring science projects ($2 billion), exploring the solar system ($1.4 billion), studying the sun ($778 million), and biological sciences ($83 million), where the total works out to approximately $7.4 billion. The remaining funds will be used to fuel ongoing projects and launch new missions. However, the money is $760 million short of Biden’s original ask and $770 million more than its 2021 budget, which was $23.3 billion.

As NASA is an independent agency of the US Federal government, it receives almost all of its funding from the government. Every year, the government submits a budget which must be approved by Congress. After the budget is approved, it comes into force only when the US President signs it, before the fiscal year starting October 1. It is unclear whether NASA receives funding from any other sources, including commercial contracts or wealthy donors.  

Other than exploring space, NASA also provides the world with unique data on climate change, and works with everyone from governments to independent contracts to make a mission successful. Throughout history, the space agency has carried out numerous uncrewed and robotic spaceflight programs to study the universe. It has also partnered with SpaceX to launch several missions. Along with its subordinate facilities spread throughout the USA, NASA works on bettering life here on Earth while entertaining the possibility of life away from the planet

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Blue Origin, private spaceflight company backed by e-commerce retail billionaire Jeff Bezos, has entered into a partnership with a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture to supply rocket engines that will launch America’s military and national security satellites.

The announcement comes after fellow billionaire Elon Musk revealed developments behind building a rocket and capsule through his Space Exploration Technologies business.

The partnership between United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin has set a four-year advancement plan, with full testing that will commence in 2016, and the first flight scheduled for 2019, as indicated by the official statement today from both the companies. The Boeing-Lockheed joint venture currently handles all US military satellite launches.

Competition has been turned intense in recent years as the availability of Russian-made RD-180 engines normally utilized in US space launches is continuously threatened by political strains over Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.

“It’s time for a 21st Century booster engine,” Bezos, the founder of retailer Amazon.com, said at a news conference on Wednesday in Washington. The engine will be 100 per cent built and tested in the United States, he said.

Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine has been under development for past three years, and is high-performing while being minimal when it comes to cost, Bezos said.

Competition is fierce in comparison to actually launching satellites. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration on Tuesday said Boeing and SpaceX would divide $6.8 billion in government financing to build the first US manned craft since NASA resigned the shuttle fleet in 2011. In 2017, the Boeing-SpaceX manned craft would supplant NASA’s sole utilization of Russia’s Soyuz rockets to get individuals to the station, a plan that costs about $70 million a seat.

United Launch Alliance utilizes RD-180 engine in some of its Atlas V rockets flights. US reliance on a Russian-made engine has provoked criticism in Congress since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region not long ago.

The US and the European Union have forced financial sanctions on Russia trying to get President Vladimir Putin to back up. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in May that his nation would cut off the supply of the engines to the US in countering for the diplomatic pressures. In April, he sent out a tweet suggesting via Twitter that the US should consider sending crews to space “with a trampoline.”

The NASA contract to carry astronauts to the International Space Station will pay a sum of up to $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX. Boeing and SpaceX might accomplish six missions as a part of the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, NASA said. NASA said on Tuesday it will keep on meeting expectations with Blue Origin and an alternate spaceflight company, Sierra Nevada, as they refine shuttle designs.

Boeing was a significant partner in NASA’s Apollo and shuttle programs, and the United Launch Alliance has an exclusive contract to carry US military payloads. A month ago, the US Air Force issued a ‘’request for information’’ from industry on potential choices to replace the RD-180 engine.

Until further notice, Russian and American space explorers will keep on training together for Soyuz missions in the midst of strained ties between the two nations.

US space travelers are slated to launch for the space station in Russian launch vehicles on September 25 and November 23, as indicated by a schedule posted on NASA’s site.

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