Major Test for Starship Rocket

The very large Starship space vehicle of SpaceX, which is part (as a lunar lander) of the NASA plan for the return of astronauts to the Moon in the Artemis program, is likely to be launched for the first time this coming week. The launch, on top of a SpaceX Superheavy rocket, could come as early as Monday morning April 17, after the Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX clearance for launch from its facility near Brownsville, Texas. The company considers the unmanned launch “experimental"; its objective will be a single orbit of the Earth.