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Giant leap for China in moon race as SpaceX struggles to get its Starship rocket off the ground
- A SpaceX representative has told a US Senate hearing that governmental red tape is holding up America’s Artemis III moon mission
- The FAA has been slow to grant approval for Starship’s second launch after the previous attempt exploded soon after take-off
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Ling Xinin Ohio
China may get ahead in the new moon race, a US Senate subcommittee has been warned, due to inefficient government regulations in America slowing the development of the SpaceX Starship super heavy rocket.
“SpaceX is under contract with Nasa to use Starship to land American astronauts on the moon before China does,” Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice-president of build and flight reliability, told the US Senate Subcommittee on Space and Science on Wednesday.
“We’re undertaking a campaign that requires many early test flights to rapidly mature and prove out the critical systems needed to safely land Nasa astronauts on the lunar surface,” he said.
However, the 121m-tall, 5,000-tonne rocket has been sitting on its launch pad in Boca Chica, Texas, ready for a second launch attempt since early September, while SpaceX continues to wait for approval to launch from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to Gerstenmaier.
He said though flight safety is important, so are innovation and maintaining US leadership in space.
“We are at an inflection point with incredible innovation in commercial space launch. The criticality is especially true in the face of strategic competition from state actors like China,” Gerstenmaier told the subcommittee.
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SpaceX Starship, world’s largest rocket, explodes minutes after lift-off on first test flight
SpaceX Starship, world’s largest rocket, explodes minutes after lift-off on first test flight
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