Elon Musk's SpaceX starts building new launch pad in Florida for Spaceship rockets

In a bid to land on Mars soon, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has now started building a launchpad for its Starship rockets in Florida. To send multiple Spaceships to the Moon and Mars by next year, SpaceX on Friday started the development of a launchpad for its mammoth Spaceship rockets that are currently under development. 

Informing about the same, SpaceX CEO tweeted on Friday and wrote, “Construction of the Starship orbital launch pad at the Cape has begun.” 

The company wants to add another location to launch its rockets. Before this, SpaceX has been using the launch complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre for launching its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The launch complex at Kennedy Centre has been leased by SpaceX from NASA and it had previously even started some work on the ground for Starship-specific rockets. The work had started on the ground in 2019 for the Starship pad, however, no other construction work has been done since then.

Musk's statement on Friday signals a resumption of work on the massive rocket's Florida launch site, as he pushes SpaceX to conduct as many as a dozen Starship test flights next year.

SpaceX successfully launches a Falcon 9 carrying 48 Starlink satellites

Earlier on Thursday, the aerospace company SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a stack of 48 Starlink satellites and two BlackSky Earth observation satellites into orbit. Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:12 pm (EST). “The Falcon has landed,” SpaceX representatives said on a live broadcast on Thursday. The liftoff has now marked the second upgraded batch of Starlink satellites to launch from Florida on the previously-flown Falcon 9 rocket.

Starship's preparations for the first orbital launch

SpaceX's Starship SN20 is getting ready to reach heights where no other Starship rocket has ever reached. And as part of the preparations, SpaceX conducted the first six engines test fire and the second static test overall of the SN20. The 165-foot-tall Starship consists of two components - the Super Heavy booster powered by 29 raptors engines, and the Starship mounted over it, which will be loaded with crew and cargo.

Image: Twitter/@SpaceX, AP