SpaceX is preparing to launch a massive Starship rocket from South Texas.
The final spaceship test flight was almost three months ago, and it notched the milestone: the first reuse of the super heavy booster. However, its mission ended at the upper stage, also known as a spacecraft or ship, which fell apart upon re-entry, and during the landing and burning phase of the flight, boosters exploded on the Gulf Coast.
A few weeks later, the ship was blown to the ground during a static campaign, destroying the test stand and forced SpaceX to replace it in the new upper stage of this next mission. The Federal Aviation Administration has since closed the investigation into flight nine accidents, clearing the way for this next attempt.
These consecutive losses raised interest and turned this next flight into its own kind of test. Can SpaceX integrate the lessons learned and notch some new victory?
The company’s approach is well known for being “Build-Fly-Fix-Reepeat”, and each test flight produces a mountain of valuable data. However, the ongoing loss of the “ship” in flight raised questions about when Megarocket is ready to carry payloads to commercial customers and NASA.
Despite the set-off, SpaceX has made notable advances in stainless steel spacecraft since its first flight in April 2023. Recently, he created his first history with boosters in May, proving that it is possible to reuse quickly. But like the ultimate goal, returning the upper stage seems to be a journey, let alone landing for reuse.
Financial interests are becoming more and more public. In a January submission to Texas regulators, SpaceX said it had already poured “over $7.5 billion” into Starbase and the Starship program. More recently, SpaceX told the Florida governor it plans to spend another $1.8 billion to build spacecraft pads for the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
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NASA has also deposited the bank for Starship’s success.
SpaceX holds two contracts worth $4 billion to develop a version of Starship, known as the Human Landing System, to bring astronauts back to the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program. Its mission, Artemis III, is currently scheduled for mid-2027. To meet that date and give NASA confidence that the spacecraft is safe enough for humans, SpaceX needs to demonstrate a series of tough milestones beyond simple launches and re-entry. These include completing the vessel’s reusable heat shield, demonstrating cryogenic propellant movement in low Earth orbit, and landing of a lunar spacecraft. One of these is making history, and SpaceX needs to complete them all.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that SpaceX has made progress in reassigning engineer scores from the Falcon 9 program to Starship, resolving major rocket problems.
The importance of spacecraft to the company’s long-term plans cannot be overstated. Beyond taking SpaceX, the long-standing ambition of SpaceX, SpaceX, to Mars, it brings Starship online and a larger-sized, high-throughput version of Starlink Internet satellites with higher cadences. As its service passes 6 million global customers, SpaceX is considering upgrading its constellations quickly and bringing more revenue to deliver numerous ambitions.
The spacecraft is the largest and most powerful rocket ever, standing close to 400 feet tall, with 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines on the booster and six methane-fueled engines on the ship. Upon lift-off, the integrated spacecraft generates approximately 16.5 million pounds of thrust.
On this flight, SpaceX plans a controlled splashdown for the Gulf of Mexico’s super heavy, as well as a splashdown for the ship’s Indian Ocean.
This will be the fourth test flight of the year. The lift-off is scheduled for August 24th, with an hourly launch window open at 7:30pm. SpaceX will live stream the release on X.
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