--- title: "SpaceX Is Planning a Miles-High Starship Flight as Early as March" description: "In a filing with the FCC, SpaceX revealed that it's requesting permission to fly its recent Starship prototype on a flight to an altitude of 12.4 miles." date: "2020-02-05" modified: "2020-02-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-starship-miles-high-test-flight-march" categories: - "Space" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" tags: - "elon musk" - "SpaceX" - "Starship" - "the digest" --- # SpaceX Is Planning a Miles-High Starship Flight as Early as March ![In a filing with the FCC, SpaceX revealed that it's requesting permission to fly its recent Starship prototype on a flight to an altitude of 12.4 miles.]() *\Image: SpaceX\* ## To Infinity In a [filing]() this week with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), SpaceX requested permission to fly its latest Starship prototype to an altitude of 12.4 miles — just shy of [halfway]() to the edge of space — as early as March or as late as September. The goal is to launch from the space company's Boca Chica test facilities in Texas and land upright as part of an "experimental recovery," according to the filing. SpaceX is likely trying to prove that its Starship can not only be reusable, [*The Verge* reports](), but that it's capable of landing on faraway destinations including the Moon and Mars. ## Miles High Club It would be a massive step for SpaceX's Starship, a spacecraft intended to one day lug 100 tons or [100 passengers]() as far as Mars. So far, the company has only flown a smaller scale prototype dubbed "Spacehopper" to a height of [just 500 feet]() in August. It did, however, nail the landing. Teams on site are already hard at work. "Going max hardcore on design/production Starship here in Boca," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk [tweeted on Monday](). "It’s awesome! Feels a bit like a Mars simulator." ## Colonizing Mars Starship will play a crucial role in Musk's off-world ambitions. The billionaire [tweeted]() earlier this year that he envisions building 1,000 Starships to eventually send "maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync" to the Red Planet. **READ MORE:** [SpaceX requests permission to fly new Starship rocket on 12-mile-high test flight]() \[*The Verge*\] **More on Starship:** *[Elon Musk Hints That a Cybertruck Is Headed to Mars]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()