SpaceX is set to conduct its eighth Starship test flight in Texas this Friday, the first launch since the rocket's upper stage exploded after a test last month.
The launch is pending regulatory approval, and SpaceX said “the schedule, as with all development tests, is fluid and likely to be adjusted.”
The private company plans to broadcast the testing live about 40 minutes before the launch.
SpaceX's space base is located in southwest Texas in Boca Chica, near Brownsville.
At 232 feet tall, the Super Heavy rocket is the heaviest vehicle ever built, weighing in at about 12 million pounds at launch. Overall, Starship is 394 feet tall, more than the Saturn V rocket, which stood at 363 feet and weighed 6.2 million pounds.
SpaceX's Starship is expected to travel to the Moon as part of NASA's Artemis program, with plans to land humans on the surface no earlier than mid-2027, the first time since 1972. Plans are also underway for a mission to Mars.
The seventh Starship launched from Orbital Launch Pad A on January 16.
The first stage of the launch vehicle successfully returned to the launch pad and was captured by levers on the launch tower, becoming the second launch vehicle to be returned since the fifth test.
However, during the initial burn, the upper stage engines shut down prematurely, resulting in a complete loss of telemetry. The rocket exploded over the Turks and Caicos Islands, but there were no injuries.
The incident closed regional airspace for more than an hour and prompted an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration that resulted in the suspension of testing.
“Success uncertain, but fun guaranteed!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote in his X post about the incident.
SpaceX said it made hardware and operational changes to improve the reliability of the 232-foot-tall upper stage.
The upcoming flight includes plans for the first deployment of a Starship payload and multiple experiments to return the upper stage to the launch site for capture.
Starship will deploy four Starlink simulators, which resemble the next-generation Starlink satellites, and will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship.
The super-heavy booster is equipped with upgraded avionics, including a more powerful onboard computer, an improved power distribution and network system, and integrated smart batteries.
The re-entry booster will slow to subsonic speed, resulting in a sonic boom near the landing zone.
“Experimental testing is always unpredictable,” SpaceX said. “However, by placing flight hardware into the flight environment at maximum frequency, we can quickly learn and make design changes as we work toward bringing Starship into service as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle.”
President-elect Donald Trump and Musk attended the sixth test on November 19.
Sourse: www.upi.com
