Starship fully stacked for third flight

[smp]

From the Ars Technica Rocket Report today:

“Over the last week, SpaceX has rolled out the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage to their launch pad in South Texas. This is in preparation for the third full-scale test flight of Starship, which could happen as soon as early March. On Tuesday, teams lifted Starship on top of the Super Heavy booster to complete stacking of the nearly 400-foot-tall (121-meter) rocket. That was followed by countdown rehearsals and propellant loading tests later in the week. From a technical perspective, it appears as if SpaceX could be ready to launch Starship quite soon.

Pending approval … As with SpaceX's first two Starship test flights last year, the company will need to receive a commercial launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration before proceeding with the next launch. For this to happen, SpaceX must submit the results of its investigation into what happened on the second test flight in November. That test flight was largely successful in the sense that it marked significant progress for SpaceX's mega-rocket, but the Super Heavy booster exploded as it began to maneuver toward a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Then Starship disintegrated in the final moments of its burn around seven minutes after liftoff, just before reaching its desired velocity.”

smp

[Graeme1858]

Third time lucky?

Graeme

[helicon]

3rd time the charm?

[Ylem]

We shall see...