SpaceX is set to launch its sixth Starship rocket test on Tuesday, as the company builds on the development momentum of the mammoth vehicle.
The company has a 30-minute window, from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., to launch Starship from its private “Starbase” facility near Brownsville, Texas. If SpaceX is unable to launch in that window due to weather or technical reasons, the company will postpone the attempt until later.
There will be no one on board the Starship.
SpaceX’s next-generation Starship spacecraft atop a powerful Super Heavy rocket is prepared for launch at the company’s Boca Chica launch pad, near Brownsville, Texas, USA, November 16, 2024.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
If launched according to plan, the Starship will reach space and then orbit halfway around the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing in the Indian Ocean. In addition, the rocket’s “Super Heavy” booster will return after separating from the Starship and enter the company’s launch tower.
As with each previous test flight, SpaceX aims to push development forward by testing additional Starship capabilities, including re-igniting the engine while in space and testing the heatshield upon re-entry into the atmosphere.
In addition, the launch time in the evening means that this will be the first time the Starship has made a daytime splash.
SpaceX usually has a cadre of VIPs to see Starship launches and, with CEO Elon Musk’s close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, the sixth flight was no different. Trump is expected to attend the launch on Tuesday, similar to when he watched SpaceX’s first astronaut launch in Florida in 2020 during his first administration.
Pushing the envelope
SpaceX holds the “Super Heavy” booster first stage of the Starship rocket on October 13, 2024.
Sergio Flores Afp | Getty Images
SpaceX has flown the complete Starship rocket system in five spaceflight tests so far since April 2023, with an ever-increasing cadence. An earlier launch last month featured a dramatic first shot from a booster that was more than 20 rocket levels high.
After a successful fifth flight, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that SpaceX is authorized to move forward with a sixth flight.
However, like the previous test flight, the fifth launch was uneventful. SpaceX management, in an audio posted after the launch on social media by Musk, announced that the Starship booster almost missed due to a timing problem with one of the rocket’s subsystems.
“We were one second away from tripping and told the rocket to cancel and try to hit the ground next to the tower instead of (landing on) the tower – like, wrongly telling a healthy rocket not to try to catch it,” and an unidentified person told Musk in the audio .
SpaceX will try to hold the boosters back, with the company saying on its website that it has made hardware upgrades to the rocket’s boosters to increase redundancy and better structural strength.
The Starship system is designed to be reusable and aims to be a new way to fly cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also essential to NASA’s plans to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander as part of NASA’s Artemis lunar program.
Starship is the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully loaded on Super Heavy boosters, the Starship is 397 feet tall and about 30 feet in diameter.
The Super Heavy Booster, which is 232 feet tall, is what starts the rocket’s journey into space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines, which together produce 16.7 million pounds – about double the 8.8 million pounds of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which will be launched for the first time in 2022.
The starship itself, at 165 feet tall, has six Raptor engines – three for use while in Earth’s atmosphere and three for operating in the vacuum of space.
The rocket is fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The complete system requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant to launch.
