SpaceX is gearing up for the seventh take a look at flight of its Starship megarocket, which may happen in only a month or so.
The firm carried out a static-fire take a look at with Flight 7’s Super Heavy first-stage booster at this time (Dec. 9), briefly igniting its 33 Raptor engines at a pad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
The firm documented the milestone on X at this time, posting three pictures and a brief video of the take a look at.
SpaceX has not but introduced a launch date for Starship’s seventh take a look at flight, however the firm seems to be eyeing Jan. 11; an e mail despatched by NASA to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration identifies that date because the goal. (According to that e mail, NASA plans to deploy a Gulfstream V jet to watch the upcoming flight.)
Related: What’s subsequent for SpaceX’s Starship after its profitable sixth take a look at flight?
Starship consists of two stainless-steel phases, each of that are designed to be absolutely and quickly reusable. The higher stage is a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) spacecraft referred to as Starship, or simply Ship.
When Ship is stacked atop Super Heavy, Starship stands about 400 ft (122 m) tall — larger that some other rocket in historical past. Starship can also be essentially the most highly effective launcher ever constructed, boasting almost twice the liftoff thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket.
Starship’s six take a look at flights thus far occurred in April and November of 2023 and March, June, October and November of this yr.
The megarocket has carried out fairly effectively, particularly on its final two missions. On every event, each Super Heavy and Ship made it to area as deliberate and survived their journey again all the way down to Earth in a single piece.
And, on Flight 5, Super Heavy returned safely to its launch tower, which caught the booster utilizing its “chopstick” arms — the technique SpaceX plans to make use of ultimately for each Super Heavy and Ship, to make reflight as fast and environment friendly as attainable.
SpaceX aimed to repeat the booster catch on Flight 6, however communication points with the tower scuttled that attempt, and Super Heavy diverted to splash down within the Gulf of Mexico.
