SpaceX to launch Starship for the sixth time this month

SpaceX will conduct the sixth flight check of Starship, the biggest rocket ever constructed, as quickly as November 18, following the sleek success of the earlier mission lower than a month in the past. 

The excessive flight cadence is thanks, partly, to that success, which included the first-ever return of the Tremendous Heavy booster to the launch website — the place large “chopstick” arms jutting from the launch tower caught it in mid-air — and a managed, on-target splashdown after suborbital flight of the Starship higher stage within the Indian Ocean. This sixth check consists of most of the identical goals; this reality led the Federal Aviation Administration to approve each flight 5 and 6 on the identical time final month. Up till this level, SpaceX has wanted to attend (typically months) for regulatory approval earlier than every Starship launch. 

In a post on its website, SpaceX says it can try and re-create these identical successes on November 18, together with catching the booster on the launch website and an correct Starship splashdown. The corporate will even proceed to check the warmth protect and maneuvers for the upper-stage reentry, “to increase the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get nearer to bringing reuse of the complete system on-line.” Engineers additionally launched a variety of upgrades to the system, together with extra redundancy within the booster propulsion system, up to date software program controls, and different adjustments.

SpaceX will even try and relight one of many Ship’s six Raptor engines on orbit, a key functionality to ultimately additionally reuse the Starship higher stage. Engineers will put this stage by way of its paces in different methods as properly: The corporate will check new secondary thermal safety supplies. As well as, as the corporate put it, “The ship additionally will deliberately fly at the next angle of assault within the ultimate section of descent, purposefully stressing the boundaries of flap management to realize information on future touchdown profiles.”

All this testing will culminate in “vital upgrades” to the ship, beginning with flight 7, like redesigned flaps, bigger propellant tanks, and probably the most up-to-date thermal safety.

A reside webcast of the check will begin round half-hour earlier than the 30-minute launch window at 2 p.m. PT, which might be viewable on X or SpaceX’s web site. This late-afternoon launch window (which opens at 4 p.m. native Texas time) will allow higher viewing situations upon reentry, SpaceX mentioned.