Washington. February 11. INTERFAX - The creator of the American aerospace company SpaceX has expressed confidence in conducting the first orbital flight of the superheavy Starship launch vehicle, which will be used in the landing of a man on the Moon, this year.
"I am confident that we will launch (Starship - IF) into orbit this year," Musk said during a presentation on the progress of work on the Starship project.
Previously, the rocket flight was planned for February 2022, however, due to the large number of public comments on SpaceX's application for a license to conduct launches from the company's spaceport in Texas, the US Federal Aviation Administration had to postpone the date of evaluation of the planned launch site for the risk of creating a danger to the environment and local infrastructure until February 28. Now the earliest possible flight date, if the company is granted a license, is called March 2022.
According to the company's plan, the two-stage launch vehicle should launch from the private SpaceX spaceport in south Texas. A few minutes after starting the engines, the lower stage of the Super Heavy accelerator should detach from the upper one, and then fall in the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, the upper stage of the rocket should enter the Earth's orbit and make one revolution around it, after which it will return to the planet's atmosphere and "land" in the Pacific Ocean.
In September 2019, NASA approached private companies with an offer to participate in a competition to create innovative projects as part of the program to develop a system for landing a man on the moon in 2024.
SpaceX, Dynetics and Blue Origin participated in the competition for the contract in partnership with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper.
In April 2021, NASA announced that the contract for the landing of astronauts on the Moon in 2024 was awarded to Elon Musk's company SpaceX, which should develop the Starship HLS lander for the safe return of a person to the Moon.
