SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, Starship. Elon Musk’s company has adopted a “fail fast, learn fast” approach to research and development more in line with the world of Silicon Valley than the aerospace industry, and the pace of startups appears to be accelerating.
When is the next flight?
SpaceX says on his website Aiming for Starship’s sixth test flight on November 19, the launch window is set to open at 4pm Central Time (10pm UK). The presentation will be broadcast live SpaceX’s X accountThe social media platform also had Musk, or you can see it here at newscientist.com
It took SpaceX 18 months to complete the first five Starship test flights, with the fifth taking place in mid-October. If the company makes a sixth next week, it will mean a gap of just over a month since the last flight, the fastest turnaround to date.
What will SpaceX try on the 6th flight?
In many ways, Flight 6 will be a repeat flight 5but with some key differences.
Booster stage will be retried “chopstick” landingwhere the craft is caught and secured as it returns to the launch, allowing it to descend to the ground. This approach is designed to eventually allow the booster to be reused multiple times and massively reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.
Starship on a high altitude test flight
SpaceX
The upper stage will reach space, complete a partial orbit, and then re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown landing in the Indian Ocean. But this time, the upper stage will attempt to ignite one of its Raptor engines while in space to gather valuable operational data. It will also test the new heat shield designs on re-entry.
Another difference is that the launch will take place later in the day, so that the landing of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean can be filmed in daylight, ensuring greater detail. Previous missions have seen night landings, so the images, while cinematic and dramatic, haven’t given engineers as much insight into daytime landings as video.
What happened to previous Starship launches?
Test flight 1 On April 20, 2023, three of the 33 booster stage engines failed to ignite. The rocket later went out of control and self-destructed.
The second test flight on November 18, 2023 went further, gaining enough altitude that the booster and upper stages separated as planned. The booster stage eventually exploded before reaching ground level and the upper stage self-destructed, though not before successfully reaching space.
Test Flight 3 on March 14, 2024 was at least a partial success, as the upper stage reached space once more, but did not fully return to ground level.
On the next flight, on June 6, the upper stage reached an altitude of more than 200 kilometers and traveled at a speed of more than 27,000 kilometers per hour. Both the booster and the upper stage formed gentle splashes in the ocean.
The 5th test flight was the most ambitious to date, with the Starship’s Super Heavy booster returning to the launch pad and SpaceX’s launch tower, dubbed Mechazilla, safely capturing it in a pair of ‘rollers’. It is equipped A couple of “towels” to hold crafts at a specific point and secure it, allowing it to descend to the ground.
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