Elon Musk, the company's CEO, announced that SpaceX has begun development of a dedicated platform for its Starship spacecraft at Kennedy Space Launch Complex 39A NASA Center, near Cape Canaveral. Objective:aim for the Moon.
In 2014, SpaceX signed a twenty-year lease agreement with NASA allowing the company to use the Pad 39A for its missions to the International Space Station (ISS) . As a reminder, this launch complex had been used to assemble and launch the most emblematic spacecraft of the NASA program such as the Saturn V rocket, the American space shuttle.
For now, these launches only involve the company's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, but there will soon be talk of launching the Starship as well. On the other hand, this future interplanetary and fully reusable vessel requires new infrastructure . Recall that the manufacturing and testing operations of these vehicles are currently centered on Starbase, SpaceX's facilities in southern Texas, near the village of Boca Chica.
With that in mind, Elon Musk announced this Friday, December 3, that SpaceX has begun "construction of the spacecraft's orbital launch pad in Cape Town […]. 39A is holy ground for spaceflight ". He also added that "ground support systems and a capture tower similar to Starbase, but improved will be available on this site.
SpaceX had already begun preliminary work on Pad 39A in the fall of 2019, but quickly halted it as operations ramped up at Starbase.
These facilities will obviously serve future launches towards the Moon as part of Artemis missions.
Last April, NASA had indeed selected SpaceX to provide this landing system involving a version of the Starship vehicle. Initially, the first landing of this vessel on lunar soil was to take place as part of the Artemis 3 mission which provides for the return of humans on site in 2025 .
Now, the US agency requires an infill test flight involving an unmanned landing of the vehicle in an effort to prove that it can land safely on the Moon and return to orbit.
In the meantime, SpaceX is preparing to launch its program's first orbital test flight early next year, provided the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) United States completes its environmental review of the launch site. During this test, the prototype will aim for an altitude of 115 kilometers . It should then land off the northwest coast of Kauai.
