SpaceX’s Fourth Starship IFT-4 Test Is On Track For May Reveals NASA Official

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With April nearly over, SpaceX's highly anticipated fourth Starship test flight remains on schedule for a May test attempt, according to comments made by a NASA official earlier today. NASA and SpaceX are working together to ensure that Starship, the world's largest rocket, can support the agency's multi billion dollar effort to explore the Moon under the Artemis program. On this front, NASA's deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, Amit Kshatriya, shared the latest details for Starship at an Advisory Council meeting held earlier today, where he outlined that the fourth Starship test flight is currently scheduled to take place next month.

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Today's meeting focused on NASA's Moon to Mars architecture, through which the space agency aims to utilize the Moon's unique characteristics to serve as a stepping stone for deeper outer space missions. The Moon's gravity is one aspect that's favorable since it means that rockets can take more payload and use less fuel for launches.

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SpaceX's Starship program is a crucial aspect of NASA's lunar exploration plans since not only is the upper stage spacecraft significantly larger than other landers contracted by the space agency, but also because its propulsion system is designed to liftoff in a manner similar to a rocket. The Starship spacecraft uses Raptor rocket engines, and SpaceX's long term plans for the rocket also involve relying on it to bring humans back from Mars.

At the meeting, NASA's Kshatriya shared that, as of now, the space agency is hoping that the fourth SpaceX Starship test flight will take place by the end of May. His comments build on statements made by SpaceX's president and