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Old 15th October 2024 | 21:04
  #784 (permalink)  
ORAC
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From: Peripatetic
In presume this is because the current licence covers flights this year using the same profile as IFT5 - allowing up to two more.

Next year will, presumably, be a new licence covering Starship recovery.

This is a far bigger step than it seems. The booster launches over the Atlantic and then burns back to the launch site, having a footprint just over the ocean and launch site.

The Starship will be launched eastwards but will have to complete an orbit and re-enter, as did the Shuttle and as does Dragon, crossing over California, New Mexico and Texas to get back to the launch site - unless they build a catch site at Vandenburg (which would assume a future launch tower there as well launching to the east).

BREAKING: Elon Musk just announced that by early next year, SpaceX will attempt to catch the Starship itself, not just the Super Heavy booster.
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