{"id":21425,"date":"2025-04-03T21:33:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T13:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacexs-starship-added-to-nasas-approved-launcher-list\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T21:33:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T13:33:45","slug":"spacexs-starship-added-to-nasas-approved-launcher-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacexs-starship-added-to-nasas-approved-launcher-list\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX\u2019s Starship added to NASA\u2019s approved launcher list"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"42847\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2025\/02\/25\/spacex-shares-starship-flight-7-recap-what-went-wrong\/gh2c09bbeaauohr\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"1920,960\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Starship Flight 7 Ship 33\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: SpaceX<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/02\/Gh2c09bbEAAuoHR.jpeg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: SpaceX\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week NASA announced that it has added SpaceX\u2019s Starship rocket to its NASA Launch Services II contract, giving future access to NASA missions when the agency and rocket are ready. However, Starship\u2019s current status will need to move forward in development much further before it will likely be able to compete for contracts.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-43072\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA Launch Services is the agency\u2019s program to acquire launch services for its various scientific missions. This covers everything from tech demonstrations on rideshares to flagship missions like Europa Clipper. However, just because you\u2019re in the program doesn\u2019t mean you can bid on everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NASA breaks its program into three categories: Category 1, 2, and 3. Category 1 rockets are for new rockets with little to no launch experience under their belts; Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket just recently gained this approval after its first launch. They can bid on NASA\u2019s Class D missions that accept higher risk in exchange for cheaper access to space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Category 2 can launch Class C or B missions, which are for rockets that have flown a handful of times. Finally, Category 3 is the highest level and can launch NASA\u2019s Class A missions that are of the highest importance and can\u2019t accept much risk in terms of success. SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 and Heavy rockets exist in this category.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-43072',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s unlikely Starship has yet to meet even the Category 1 title for NLS missions, as the rocket has yet to reach orbit on any of its eight test flights. However, now that it\u2019s in the program, once it does reach orbit, SpaceX can move NASA to certify it for Class D missions, although that will likely be overkill for a rocket of its size.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right now, Starship\u2019s flight status is in flux as there has been no word on when its ninth test flight will take place after two highly publicized failures earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX is hoping to get Starship to orbit and deploy payloads, likely Starlink satellites, this year. This will require a clean suborbital flight with its new Block 2 Ship stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Where NASA\u2019s NSL contract will likely be used the most for Starship will be in the company\u2019s contract as a lunar lander for Artemis. Another part of Starship\u2019s development that is likely over a year or more away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}