SpaceX closer to Starship's debut launch with rocket's first-ever successful fuelling test

SpaceX has achieved a major milestone in launching Starship as the mega-rocket was filled with propellant for the first time ahead of its debut mission. The milestone was a successful fuelling test of Starship to demonstrate that the rocket can be filled with propellant without any anomaly in a process called 'wet dress rehearsal'. 

"Starship completed its first full flight-like wet dress rehearsal at Starbase today. This was the first time an integrated Ship and Booster were fully loaded with more than 10 million pounds of propellant," SpaceX tweeted on January 24. The Starship rocket comprises of the upper stage Ship 24 prototype and the Super Heavy Booster 7 prototype and both were loaded with super cool liquid oxygen and methane.

Starship completed its first full flight-like wet dress rehearsal at Starbase today. This was the first time an integrated Ship and Booster were fully loaded with more than 10 million pounds of propellant pic.twitter.com/btprGNGZ1G

— SpaceX (@SpaceX)

During the dress rehearsal, SpaceX team also conducted a full launch countdown similar to what will be done on launch day. This helped verify the countdown sequence and the performance of the rocket at the launch pad for flight-like operations.

Moving forward, the Ship 24 prototype will be destacked from the Super Heavy Booster. This would be done for the static fire test of all 33 of the Raptor 2 engines attached to the Super Heavy Booster. The static fire test will involve firing all the engines at once for a specific duration while the Booster is attached to the launch tower.

If all goes well, SpaceX will share the data with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to obtain a launch license. Needless to say, the company will proceed extremely carefully considering the Booster caught fire the last time it attempted to fire all its engines at once in July last year. It is the FAA's license that will decide when the orbital launch, the debut Starship flight takes place. 

Starship has been assigned some serious responsibilities as NASA has already placed a bet on it for cargo and crew transportation to the Moon under the Artemis missions. Jim Free, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, congratulated SpaceX on achieving the milestone. "The data review will be an important human landing system milestone for Artemis ahead of Starship’s orbital flight test", Free tweeted. It is also the strongest contender as a launch vehicle for missions to Mars.

Congratulations to @SpaceX on a successful wet dress rehearsal! The data review will be an important human landing system milestone for #Artemis ahead of Starship’s orbital flight test. Onward to the Moon! https://t.co/Gfqla0Svtr

— Jim Free (@JimFree)