Just a month after the second flight of its massive Starship rocket, SpaceX is moving forward with its third attempt.
On Wednesday, at 1:37 p.m. local time in South Texas, the company conducted a static fire test of its next Starship, serial number “Ship 28.” Tests of the rocket’s six engines appeared to be nominally uneventful, as the Raptors ignited them. Few seconds. After testing, the rocket and ground support equipment appeared undamaged.
Also this week, SpaceX moved the booster it will use for its next attempt, Booster 10, to the launch site at its Starbase facility in south Texas. The vehicle was then lifted onto the orbital launch pad. The rocket will likely undergo a static fire test within the next few days.
Once these tests are complete, Starship’s upper stage will be stacked on top of the booster to complete the launch vehicle. At this point, it appears that the Integrated Flight Test 3 hardware is essentially ready for launch.
With this third flight, SpaceX aims to fly further into the profile where Starship will eventually make a controlled landing in the ocean north of Kauai, Hawaii. SpaceX may also conduct propellant transport tests in space, but this has not been confirmed.
Starship’s second launch attempt on November 18 was significantly more successful than its first attempt in April 2023. The second flight test demonstrated significantly improved engine reliability and provided valuable data on the difficult “hot staging” maneuver to separate the super heavy booster from the spacecraft. Starship upper stage.
Will you be doing another test flight soon?
Kathy Ruders, general manager of SpaceX’s Starbase launch site near Brownsville, recently said the company aims to conduct this third test flight in the first quarter of next year. “I definitely think it would be great to stay in the first quarter,” she said. “Elon [Musk] Probably by the end of December, but I don’t think we’ll get there. ”
Since the second test flight took place, neither the company nor SpaceX founder Elon Musk have been wondering what ultimately went wrong with Starship’s upper stage, which failed within minutes of flight, or whether the final has not provided a technical update on why the booster was lost. From the starship vehicle.
However, far fewer modifications were made to the rocket’s hardware and launch site prior to this third attempt, suggesting that at least some of the problems may have been related to the flight software. Masu.
SpaceX has not yet received regulatory approval for Starship’s third launch. The Federal Aviation Administration labeled the second attempt in November an “accident,” but acknowledged that no injuries or damage to public property were reported.
After an abnormality occurs, the agency saidsaid via social media site Since then, the FAA has not provided any additional information this month.