With April almost over, the highly anticipated fourth test flight of the powerful rocket Starship of SpaceX remains scheduled for a test attempt at May, according to a NASA official. NASA and SpaceX are working together to ensure that Starship, the world’s largest rocket, can support the agency’s multibillion-dollar effort to explore moon as part of the Artemis programme. On this front, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, Amit Kshatriya, shared the latest details on Starship in an Advisory Council meeting held yesterday, Friday 26 April, where he underlined that the fourth test flight of Starship is currently scheduled for May.
NASA confident about achieving March propellant transfer test goals
The meeting focused on the architecture of the program Moon to Mars by NASA, through which the space agency aims to use the Moon’s unique characteristics to serve as a launch pad for deeper space missions. The Moon’s gravity is a favorable aspect because it means rockets can carry more payload and use less fuel for launches.
SpaceX’s Starship program is a crucial aspect of NASA’s lunar exploration plans because not only is the upper stage significantly larger than other landers commissioned by the space agency, but also because its propulsion system is designed to take off in a similar manner to a rocket. Starship uses Raptor engines, and SpaceX’s long-term plans for the rocket also include relying on it to bring humans back from Mars.
During the meeting, Kshatriya shared that, for now, the space agency hopes Starship’s fourth test flight will take place by the end of May. His comments build on statements made by SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, who said in March that Starship’s fourth test flight was scheduled for May.
March’s Starship launch also saw SpaceX perform a crucial test for NASA to transport the propellant inside the tanks of the vehicle. Kshatriya believes the test was successful in any case, but a month after the test, NASA is still evaluating the data to come to a final conclusion. He added that Starship’s crucial uncrewed lunar landing test, scheduled before the first crew boards the craft, will now also require SpaceX to demonstrate that Starship can take off from the lunar surface to lunar orbit.
Liftoff, particularly on the Moon, brings with it a host of complications related to dust and debris, and this test should also help NASA map out its plans to use the Moon as a base for Mars exploration. Kshatriya was impressed with Starship’s third test flight, calling it a “great success“. For what concern Propellant transfer test between two Starshipscritical to powering vehicles in orbit first from the their missions to Mars and the Moon, this is expected to take place in 2025.
In addition to this, the goal is also the recovery and reuse of both the Super Heavy and Starship, but for the latter at least two ditchings are necessary in a very specific point before a return to Earth can be attempted. A first attempt to capture a booster on the fly could instead take place as early as the end of the year.
The NASA official added that the agency is still working to understand the data from the heat shield for the mission Artemis 1 of the Orion spacecraft. According to him, one of the biggest risks to the Artemis II mission is the heat shield, which indicates that there may be a schedule slippage if NASA is unable to fully analyze the heat shield data before launch.
Other uses of Starship
Possible uses of Starship for lunar exploration were also presented. Thanks to its dimensions, with a diameter of 9 meters and a height of approximately 55 meters (also considering the landing legs), Starship can act both as a housing module and as a “warehouse”. Its tanks could be used to store propellants that could then be used to fuel other vehicles.
It could provide power to several instruments useful for lunar exploration, such as rovers, or act as a support for telecommunications antennas. It would also be possible to dismantle some Starship components that no longer have to leave lunar soil, such as the engines, to reuse their components.
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