When Pence laid out the Moon plan in 2019, it had fallen to Bridenstine to cobble together the plan to get humans to the lunar surface in five years. Within days of Pence's speech, Bridenstine seemed to be doing just that. He appeared before Congress and said NASA was studying the possibility of using SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket—already flying—to get the job done. But very soon, influential members of Congress told him to knock it off. Despite Pence's talk of finding other contractors, the House and Senate were having none of it. For almost the entirety of the rest of his tenure, Bridenstine spoke only of SLS launching humans to the Moon. The "commercial rocket" insurrection was over.
 
Only after the big core stage test this January, and with less than four days remaining in his tenure as NASA Administrator, did Bridenstine waver slightly on this position. "NASA needs to go back and look at what the options are to go to the Moon as quickly as possible," he said. "And I think that the SLS rocket is going to be that option, if we're talking about sending humans to the Moon."

As early as Thursday, January 28, the SpaceX team will attempt a high-altitude flight test of Starship serial number 9 (SN9) – the second high-altitude suborbital flight test of a Starship prototype from our site in Cameron County, Texas. Similar to the high-altitude flight test of Starship serial number 8 (SN8), SN9 will be powered through ascent by three Raptor engines, each shutting down in sequence prior to the vehicle reaching apogee – approximately 10 km in altitude. SN9 will perform a propellant transition to the internal header tanks, which hold landing propellant, before reorienting itself for reentry and a controlled aerodynamic descent.
 
The Starship prototype will descend under active aerodynamic control, accomplished by independent movement of two forward and two aft flaps on the vehicle. All four flaps are actuated by an onboard flight computer to control Starship’s attitude during flight and enable precise landing at the intended location. SN9’s Raptor engines will then reignite as the vehicle attempts a landing flip maneuver immediately before touching down on the landing pad adjacent to the launch mount.
 
A controlled aerodynamic descent with body flaps and vertical landing capability, combined with in-space refilling, are critical to landing Starship at destinations across the solar system where prepared surfaces or runways do not exist, and returning to Earth. This capability will enable a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration, interplanetary flights and help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond.
 
There will be a live feed of the flight test available here that will start a few minutes prior to liftoff. Given the dynamic schedule of development testing, stay tuned to our social media channels for updates as we move toward SpaceX’s second high-altitude flight test of Starship!