SpaceX increases movement on Starship’s launch pad ahead of third flight

There is some new activity happening over Starship’s launch pad as SpaceX is moving the new Starship and Super Heavy Booster on the stand ahead of the much-awaited third test flight.

NASASpaceflight shared visuals from February 9th and February 10th (today) with SpaceX rolling out a new Booster rocket to the orbital launch pad.

Unlike the booster rocket, which is already stacked on the launch pad, the Starship, at the time of the reporting, is currently standing beside the booster rocket.

The rocket maker could perform a hot-fire test for the booster and the Starship separately. It will be followed by an integrated rocket engine ignition once the Starship is stacked over the super-heavy booster.

SpaceX’s Super Heavy Booster at Launch Pad (Credit – NASASpaceflight)

SpaceX has not shared related news via its X account but this new move also means that the next flight test might be around the corner.

A recent report suggests that Starship could fly for the third time by this month but there’s a pending Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval required to commence this test.

Before this launch, SpaceX has already launched two orbital flights for this massive integrated spacecraft. The first test flight occurred in April last year and the second flight in November.

Both of these two flights achieved new milestones for Starship including a successful liftoff from the launch pad and hot-staging. Now, the third flight is still aiming to reach the orbit, which is not yet achieved.