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Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is racing towards conducting its Starship rocket's highly anticipated test flight. SpaceX broke the silence on the test just moments back as it shared that the vehicle is fully stacked at the company's test facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. It added that in the coming week, teams will first conduct a wet dress rehearsal of the rocket's test attempt, following which it plans to finally fly the world's largest rocket should the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) give the go ahead in the form of a launch license

SpaceX To Begin Starship Flight Test Campaign By Conducting a Wet Dress Rehearsal

Today's announcement from SpaceX comes after a hot week of rumors and launch placeholders that picked up the pace after complete silence since the Starship Super Heavy booster's engines underwent a static fire test in January. After it was confirmed that the static fire test was successful, an flight test was only a matter of time, and today's announcement confirms this.

SpaceX shared details about its campaign plan in a tweet which outlined that it has stacked the first and second stages of the 329 feet tall rocket on top of each other. This has already been covered by dedicated observers of the company's launch site, and today's announcement reveals that in the coming week, SpaceX will conduct a launch rehearsal of the massive rocket. Such rehearsals are common before large rocket launches, as they ensure that ground control and support teams understand their duties and responsibilities before the launch date.

The company added that it would conduct Starship's first 'integrated flight test' a week after that, should the FAA provide it with a launch license. The FAA's current launch license to SpaceX only permits short hops and ground tests.

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SpaceX's latest announcement follows a notification from officials of Cameron County, which confirmed that there would not be a flight test next week. The hype about such a test began to build after rumors started to surface early this month. Then, placeholders by NASA for its WB-57 observational plane and the addition of Starship to the FAA's operational advisory indicated that things were moving fast in Boca Chica.

A test flight is one of the riskiest parts of Starship's development, especially due to the rocket's size. Starship is the only rocket in the world that uses almost three dozen engines on its first stage, and firing them together simultaneously and ensuring that they perform nominally during the flight will be an unprecedented technological achievement for SpaceX.

At the same time, should things go awry, the firm must ground its rocket and meticulously scan the test's data to discover what went wrong. This process often takes months, and it will set back SpaceX's plans to launch its second-generation Starlink satellites through the rocket. Additionally, Starship is an integral part of NASA's Artemis program as it is the only lunar landerselected by the space agency to land astronauts on the Moon. NASA had originally planned a Starship demonstration mission for 2024, and any setback on the test could cause the agency to also push back its plans.