SpaceX COO Gwynn Shotwell said We’ll figure out what happened on both stages as well and get back to flight, hopefully in about six weeks, flight four hopefully, beginning part of May.
SpaceX’s President and COO Gwynne Shotwell gave the opening keynote at the Satellite 2024’s opening session today.
Shotwell also said
1. SpaceX’s immediate objectives aregetting re-entry right and ensuring that Starship is able to land at its designated sites. Unlike the Falcon 9, Starship is designed to be caught by its launch tower by the massive chopsticks on the launch pad. These chopsticks also stack the second stage Starship spacecraft on the first stage Super Heavy booster. The Mechazilla launch tower is an indispensable component of SpaceX’s plan to make the world’s biggest rocket also rapidly reusable.
2. SpaceX plans to fly 148 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy missions this year.
3. She would love to get Starship into orbit, deploying satellites, and recovered, both stages fully recovered, with rapid turnaround on those stages as well.
4. SpaceX would love to double the customer base (about 5 million) for Starlink and launch as many as seven Dragon missions by the end of 2024.
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