SpaceX is preparing its Starship rocket for an orbital test flight.
The company — founded by entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — will attempt to launch the most powerful space vehicle ever built into space for the first time.
According to a Federal Communications Commission filing:
The Starship Orbital test flight will originate from Starbase, TX. The Booster stage will separate approximately 170 seconds into flight. The Booster will then perform a partial return and land in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 20 miles from the shore. The Orbital Starship will continue on flying between the Florida Straits. It will achieve orbit until performing a powered, targeted landing approximately 100km (~62 miles) off the northwest coast of Kauai in a soft ocean landing.
Photos and videos from the social media accounts of Elon Musk and SpaceX show team members assembling and transporting Starship.
Super Heavy Booster moving to orbital launch mount pic.twitter.com/axaDnXNm84
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2021
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2021
The 400-foot-tall vehicle — which is capable of carrying over 220,000 pounds into orbit — is powered by twenty-nine Raptor engines.
Installing Starship booster engines for first orbital flight pic.twitter.com/yhqrNFBclh
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 2, 2021
29 Raptor engines and 4 grid fins have been installed on Super Heavy ahead of first orbital flight pic.twitter.com/XHkCZ9VYK4
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 3, 2021
Raptors on Super Heavy pic.twitter.com/jJy1vftHNB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 2, 2021
100th build of a Raptor engine complete pic.twitter.com/ymoJmV820Z
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 26, 2021
Starship will launch from “Starbase” — a hub built by SpaceX near Boca Chica Village, Texas.
Starbase is moving at Warp 9 pic.twitter.com/p8F5Qqfl8T
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 31, 2021
SpaceX’s test of Starship — if successful — will become the latest advancement in private space travel. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin completed their first successful orbital space tourism flights in July.
Some lawmakers, however, are seeking to introduce a tax on private space activity.
The Securing Protections Against Carbon Emissions (SPACE) Tax Act — proposed by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — would create a new excise tax on commercial space flights carrying human passengers for purposes other than research. The tax would be applied in two tiers — the first for suborbital flights exceeding 50 miles above the Earth’s surface and the second for orbital flights exceeding 80 miles above the Earth’s surface.
Beyond dubbing space tourism expeditions as a “tax-free holiday for the wealthy,” Blumenauer claimed that the bill would attempt to mitigate the effects of private space travel upon the environment.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) likewise blasted Bezos for traveling to space while neglecting to pay his taxes.
“Look, he’s laughing at every person in America who actually paid taxes,” Warren asserted. “Jeff Bezos’ trip to outer space is being financed by all the rest of the U.S. taxpayers who paid their taxes so that Jeff Bezos didn’t have to. And Jeff Bezos kept all his money and used it on his space ticket.”