SpaceX Gears Up For Third Starship Flight And Ships Rocket To Launch Site

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After an excitement filled orbital test flight in November, SpaceX is in no mood to wait as it is already transporting its rockets to the launch site. SpaceX's rocket complex in Boca Chica, Texas, dubbed Starbase, features production, launch and test sites. Footage from local media shows that a Starship rocket booster and a second stage spacracraft have made their way to the launch site, with SpaceX celebrating the holiday season by decorating their transporters. While simply moving a rocket to a launch site is not indicative of any potential tests, it shows confidence in the vehicles and leaves the door open for a quick turnaround for Starship's third test flight.

SpaceX's second Starship test flight in November came eight months after the first flight in April. This was a noticeable delay for a hardware rich company with several boosters already in production and in the final stages of assembly. The delay was due to SpaceX's work with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). While SpaceX finished the FAA's regulatory clearance requirements quickly, the primary delay came because of the water deluge system.

The first Starship test flight in April had destroyed the launch pad as there was no fire suppression system to taper the thrust from the 33 Raptor 2 engines at the time of launch. As a result, the water deluge system had to be built and then evaluated by the FWS to ensure it did not violate any environmental conditions that were part of SpaceX's launch site evaluation.

Immediately after the FWS gave the green signal, the second Starship