{"id":863543,"date":"2026-09-28T13:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863543\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:04:15","slug":"live-updates-spacex-starship-set-for-first-orbital-test-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/863543\/","title":{"rendered":"Live updates: SpaceX Starship set for first orbital test flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"This<\/p>\n

\n During each Starship test flight, underneath the roar of rocket engines is the anxious drumbeat of an urgent, looming deadline.\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA hopes to use Starship \u2014 or a lunar lander built by SpaceX\u2019s arch rival, Blue Origin \u2014 to land its astronauts back on the moon amid a space race with China. Both countries are aiming to build permanent bases on the moon\u2019s south pole.\n <\/p>\n

\n Right now, NASA is aiming to land its astronauts on the moon \u2014 for the first time since the Apollo program ended in 1972 \u2014 by 2028. That\u2019s widely expected to be delayed.\n <\/p>\n

\n But before the agency can carry out that mission, it intends to do a test run in low-Earth orbit.\n <\/p>\n

\n Called Artemis III, the test flight is slated for 2027. The goal is to launch four US astronauts<\/a>, riding aboard the NASA-made Orion spacecraft, to orbit, where the vehicle will attempt to dock with both Starship and Blue Moon, the name of Blue Origin\u2019s vehicle.\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA chief Jared Isaacman has said he\u2019s \u201cconfident\u201d both Blue Origin and SpaceX\u2019s vehicles will be ready \u2014 but much remains to be seen.\n <\/p>\n

\n And even if Starship has a pristine showing in that test flight next year, there\u2019s still a long road ahead before the gargantuan rocket system is ready to start forging a lunar future.\n <\/p>\n

\n For example, Starship must be refueled while it sits in near-Earth orbit before it heads to the moon. That requires transferring super-chilled propellants, which must be kept at temperatures colder than \u2212260\u00b0F, between multiple Starship spacecraft in space.\n <\/p>\n

\n Such a feat has never been attempted in the history of spaceflight.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During each Starship test flight, underneath the roar of rocket engines is the anxious drumbeat of an urgent,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[79],"class_list":["post-863543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}