Project Ignition: SpaceX Starship testing site on Florida’s Space Coast detailed in permit filing
SpaceX files plans for new Starship testing in Florida
SpaceX has filed permits for a new Starship testing site on Florida’s Space Coast as the company prepares to eventually launch its massive rocket from Central Florida.
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - SpaceX has filed permits for a new Starship testing site on Florida’s Space Coast as the company prepares to eventually launch its massive rocket from Central Florida.
SpaceX is calling the plans "Project Ignition," according to documentation.
What is Project Ignition?
What we know:
The plans, submitted to the St. Johns River Water Management District, call for a roughly 55-acre development near current SpaceX Operations Area Roberts along Schwartz Road, west of Kennedy Parkway North.
According to the permit application, the site would include a test stand and other infrastructure needed to conduct testing on Starship after production, including static-fire tests.
What they're saying:
Static-fire tests involve firing a rocket’s engines while the vehicle remains secured to the ground. The tests allow engineers to check the rocket and its systems before a launch.
"It is loud, it is ferocious," said Brandon Wynn, chief operating officer of Interstellar Gateway, who has witnessed similar Starship testing in Texas.
Wynn said the tests typically last only a few minutes but are an important step before a vehicle is moved to the launch pad.
"You get the sense of how important it is given that this vehicle could carry dozens of humans at a time," Wynn said.
The testing site would be part of SpaceX’s expanding Starship operations on the Space Coast. Plans also call for Starship vehicles to eventually be built at a nearby Gigabay facility.
What we don't know:
SpaceX has said Starship launches from Florida could begin as soon as this year but no timeline is revealed in the new filings. SpaceX has proposed launching Starship from the Space Coast as many as 100 times a year.
The permits for the testing facility remain under review.
The Source: This story was written based on a permit filing with the St. Johns River Water Management District.