SpaceX Blows Up A Tank In Texas As It Waits For Starship Flight Test
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After a flurry of activity late last month and for most of September, the tempo surrounding SpaceX's next planned orbital test flight for its Starship rocket seems to have broken due to regulatory constraints. However, true to form, SpaceX is busy testing and building new rockets at its facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, and word on the street suggests that the firm is making upgrades to the flight termination system of the booster that will fly the second test flight. At the same time, other testing in Boca Chica shows that the firm recently blew up a tank likely to test its structural limits as part of the Starship development program.
The first Starship test flight in April came with a variety of predictions about the outcome of the program. The worst of these had claimed that the rocket would be grounded until 2024, which could potentially affect NASA's plans to land humans on the Moon under its Artemis program. NASA has contracted SpaceX to land astronauts through Starship, and before the firm can fly these missions, it has to demonstrate several aspects of the full rocket system.
These include not only the ability to reach orbit but also a demonstration of in orbit fuelling, which will see a tanker Starship transfer fuel to the lunar Starship. Now, as SpaceX has conducted nearly all tests for the latest test rockets, regulatory hurdles have rekindled fears that the next Starship flight might not take place this year.
Ironically, it isn't the rocket that is responsible for the potential delay. While Starship did self destruct during the April test, this was the likely outcome simply
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