If all goes as planned, we won’t have to wait much longer to witness the most potent rocket ever constructed rise to the skies.
SpaceX’s 400-foot-tall (122-meter) Starship rocket has completed four test flights thus far. And Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, believes that number five is almost here.
“Flight 5 in 4 weeks,” Elon Musk announced on Friday, July 5, on his social media network, X.
Super Heavy, a first-stage booster, and Starship, often known as Ship, an upper-stage spacecraft at 165 feet tall, make up Starship. They’re both made to be reused.
The four test flights of Starship took place between April and November 2023, as well as on March 14 and June 6 of this year. All of them have taken off from SpaceX’s South Texas base, Starbase, which is close to Brownsville.
With each flight after the other, the vehicle has performed better. For instance, the most recent launch proceeded exactly as planned: Super Heavy and Ship split on schedule, returned to Earth on schedule, and splashed down in the Indian and Gulf of Mexico, respectively.
That triumph contributes to the explanation of Flight 5’s comparatively quick turnaround. Starship’s June 6 flight went as planned, so SpaceX will have less problems to work with before the next launch. Furthermore, technical preparedness—rather than regulatory approval—is what is driving Flight 5’s timeframe, as the US Federal Aviation Administration did not mandate an accident inquiry.
If all goes as planned, Flight 5 will have an intriguing new twist: SpaceX has stated that it intends to return the massive booster for a precise landing on Starbase’s launch mount, an endeavor that would be facilitated by the “chopstick” arms of the facility’s launch tower.
According to Musk, this audacious plan will quicken Starship’s flight frequency, enabling the booster to be examined, repaired, and relaunched more quickly.
