Starship Flight 8: SpaceX cleared for a Monday launch attempt

SpaceX is cleared for its rescheduled launch attempt of Starship Flight 8 this Monday afternoon. However, we still await the final part of the rocket to make its way to the launch site for final assembly and testing.

SpaceX delayed the launch of Starship Flight 8 from Friday, February 28 to Monday, March 1. No official reason was given by the company although it is presumed to have something to do with Ship 34, which is still sitting in HighBay 2.

SpaceX moved Booster 15 from the production site to the launch pad earlier in the week, stacking it onto the launch mount at Pad A. SpaceX then had several intermittent delay notices filed with the county to move Ship 34 to the launch pad leading up to Friday’s launch attempt. SpaceX did not use those opportunities, instead delaying the launch on Wednesday.

A Friday launch attempt was always going to be a hard timeframe to pull off. SpaceX still needed to assemble and test the rocket, then get FAA approval. SpaceX actually received the sign off for it to launch Starship Flight 8 Friday morning. If the launch wasn’t delayed you could have imagined SpaceX likely would have still tried for that Friday launch attempt.

The sign off from the FAA is not a sign off of SpaceX’s required mishap investigation into Flight 7’s failure, although the company has already stated the cause of the issue was a propellent leak. The sign off was basically a waiver giving SpaceX the ability to launch while the investigation is still open.

Usually once SpaceX sends out its reasoning for the conclusion of the previous flight, the FAA investigation closure is not far behind. So there must still be something the FAA, or SpaceX, is looking at before giving Starship a full clean bill of health. Potentially the delay has something to do with the debris scattered across the Caribbean and the countless delayed or otherwise affected flights Flight 7 caused.

The earliest SpaceX could move Ship 34 to the launch site will be tonight at 12:00 A.M. CST. If a Monday launch attempt is impossible with current timelines, SpaceX has backups for Tuesday and Wednesday.

We’ll know in the morning of whether or not Monday’s launch attempt is seriously happening or not.