Over the last week there has been a lot going on around SpaceX‘s biggest and baddest rocket in development. While the action has returned down in Starbase for pre-IFT-3 flight tests, action might come in the future to the Space Force side of Florida’s Space Coast, according to the Department of the Air Force.
SpaceX looking to take over East Coast Delta IV pad
Last week the Space Force published a website announcing plans to bring SpaceX’s Starship rocket to Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Specifically they want to use the soon to be old Delta IV Heavy launch site at SLC-37.
This has long been the pad used by ULA, SpaceX’s primary competitor, for the Delta IV family of rockets. However, the company has consolidated its launch offerings down to a single rocket called Vulcan, which will replace both the Delta and Atlas families.
SpaceX has already taken over SLC-6 over on the West Coast at Vandenberg Space Force Base as a second launch site for Falcon 9 and Heavy rockets. This will bring them on par with the number of pads SpaceX operates on the East Coast.
With that said, SLC-37 is not planned to support more Falcon family rockets but be developed into a pad for Starship launch operations. This is the third option SpaceX is looking into to bring its new fully reusable rocket to Florida.
The furthest any have gotten is the construction of a second pad at LC-39A with parts of a launch tower and mount being built. That has been put on hold to not affect any NASA crewed flights taking place from the historic pad just a few hundred feet away.
SpaceX and NASA were also looking at constructing the long planned LC-49 north of LC-39B at Kennedy Space Center. That project is still in the environmental review process with little to know updates given and presumed dead.
The Space Force will also need to work through an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the changes made to SLC-37 for Starship. The process started last week when the public was notified via the website publication. The next steps will be to accept and review public comments and prepare a draft EIS.
A proposed alternative to SLC-37 is to build a brand new site between SLC-37 and SLC-40 (another SpaceX launch pad) called SLC-50. It’s still yet to be known if this would be a replacement to the LC-49 project or if SpaceX still wants all three sites operational with Starship pads.
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Starship IFT-3 rocket stacked and testing underway
All of this won’t be useful however without an operational rocket. The last week was a big one for getting Starship’s IFT-3 flight closer to being a reality.
At the end of the week before last, Booster 10 was rolled out from the production facility down Highway 3 to the launch site. There it was installed on the orbital launch pad for testing. Starship 28 made a similar trip a few days later and was then stacked on top of Booster 10. This formed the first fully stacked Starship since IFT-2 launch last year.
The full stack wasn’t expecting a launch anytime soon but it did get a few early tests done. It’s important to remember that Starship is still in the research and development phase of its existence and each rocket needs to be tested not just to make sure it can survive flight but to learn more about the systems SpaceX is building.
Both attempts to conduct a wet dress rehearsal ended in aborts for unknown reasons. SpaceX did get a test of the orbital launch pad’s water deluge system before destacking the rocket.
Starship 28 was moved to the old Suborbital Pad B that was used for several early flight tests but is now just a test stand. Booster 10 was however moved all the way back to the production facility for work, meaning it must have been the problem child during last week’s tests.
The FAA is still awaiting a final report from the IFT-2 mishap investigation with corrective actions. This will be required before the administration approves any further test flights.
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