Elon Musk said that the Starship system could go into orbit in January 2022 the reusable Starship transport system, considered the world's largest rocket. This is reported by Spaceflight Now.
The publication writes that the Starship system may go into orbit in January 2022. This will happen if SpaceX manages to complete the construction of the corresponding launch pad in Texas, carry out the necessary tests of the rocket and obtain permission to launch from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
“We have completed the first orbital accelerator and the first orbital ship, and we we'll finish with the launch pad and launch tower at the end of this month, and then we'll do some tests in December and hopefully launch [the booster-ship bundle] in January, ”Musk said.
According to him Starship's first orbital launch “is very risky, so it is unlikely to be successful.”
“I think we’ll make a lot of progress,” he said. In total, SpaceX plans to conduct at least 12 launches of the reusable transport system in 2022. In 2023, the company intends to use Starship for commercial launches.
In October, SpaceX conducted firing tests of a Raptor rocket engine designed to operate in a vacuum in space. At the time of testing, the power plant was part of the promising Starship transport system. The tests took several seconds and were successful.