The world’s strongest rocket is nearing its subsequent take a look at flight.
The seventh launch of SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is anticipated inside the subsequent month or so. After a latest static fireplace of the car’s huge Super Heavy first-stage booster, the corporate has prepped the Starship higher stage for testing of its personal.
“Starship prepared for testing forward of Flight 7,” SpaceX stated in a publish on X on Wednesday (Dec. 11), sharing photographs of the Starship car on the transfer to its take a look at stand on the firm’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
SpaceX has not introduced a date for the upcoming built-in take a look at flight (IFT), however an e-mail from NASA to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration identifies Jan. 11as the possible goal.
When the Starship higher stage is stacked atop Super Heavy, the built-in car stands practically 400 ft (122 meters) tall — greater than another rocket ever constructed. The higher stage, referred to as Ship, measures 165 ft (50 m) tall by itself.
Starship is the first-ever absolutely reusable launch car; each Super Heavy and Ship are designed to return to their launch websites to be caught mid-air by the Starship launch tower’s “chopstick arms”.
SpaceX first tried to catch Super Heavy throughout IFT-5, which launched in October. That strive succeeded; the chopsticks made a picture-perfect snag of the returning booster.
The firm needed to make one other booster catch on IFT-6, which flew on Nov. 19. But communication points with the tower scuttled that try, and Super Heavy as a substitute diverted for a managed splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico.
IFT-7 shall be SpaceX’s first Starship launch of 2025. This yr noticed the launch of 4 Starship flights, spaced out over March, June, October and November, and doubling the variety of Starship flights from 2023.
The variety of Starship launches in 2025 is anticipated to extend once more, as Starship checks off containers towards operational qualification. SpaceX and NASA are longing for Starship’s success, because the house company has tapped the brand new SpaceX car because the lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis 3 mission to place astronauts on the moon.
