We won’t have to wait much longer to see the most powerful rocket ever built take to the skies again, if all goes according to plan.
SpaceX’s 400-foot (122-meter) Starship rocket has made four test flights so far, and a fifth is expected to launch soon, according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk.
“Flight 5 in 4 weeks,” Musk said on Friday (July 5). via Xthe social media platform he owns.
The spacecraft consists of two components: a first-stage booster rocket known as Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall upper-stage spacecraft called Starship, or simply Ship. Both are designed to be reusable.
Four Starship test flights took place in April and November 2023 and on March 14 and June 6 of this year. All launched from Starbase, SpaceX’s site in South Texas, near Brownsville.
The vehicle has performed better on each successive flight. For example, the last launch went exactly according to plan: Super Heavy and Ship separated on time and returned to Earth as planned, landing in the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean, respectively.
That success helps explain the relatively quick turnaround of Flight 5. Because Starship performed as expected on June 6, SpaceX has fewer issues to analyze before its next launch. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration The incident did not require investigation.So technical readiness, not regulatory approval, is the primary driver of the fifth flight schedule.
Flight 5 will see an exciting new development, if all goes according to plan: SpaceX says it aims to return the giant rocket to a specific landing site on Starbase’s launch pad, an effort that will be aided by “chopstick” arms on the facility’s launch tower.
Musk said the bold strategy would increase the spacecraft’s flight tempo, allowing the rocket to be inspected, refurbished and relaunched faster.
