SpaceX revives Starship, allowing it to take flight once more, marking its first successful landing – and now, the pioneering space agency is set to attempt something unprecedented: catching the reusable booster on the launchpad using an oversized “catcher” mechanism.
SpaceX is set to launch its behemoth Starship spacecraft on Sunday, with a launch window opening at 8:00 AM ET, as announced on the company’s Starbase website, located in southeastern Texas. The fifth test flight of the Starship growth program has arrived sooner than expected, with the Federal Aviation Administration previously indicating that it would only issue a modified launch license by late November.
The timeline sparked significant frustration at SpaceX, aligning with its characterization of the regulatory body’s inefficiencies. Despite initial doubts, the world’s most powerful rocket is set to blast off earlier than expected, with the FAA confirming on Saturday that it has cleared the launch for Sunday.
The FAA announced that it has cleared SpaceX of all necessary security, environmental, and licensing requirements for its suborbital test flight, as stated in a recent press release. The FAA’s authorization includes approval for a forthcoming test flight, contingent upon “SpaceX’s proposed modifications for Flight 6 remaining within the analytical scope previously examined,” the agency stated.
As the crown jewel of SpaceX’s endeavor to establish a human settlement beyond Earth, the 400-foot-tall Starship takes center stage, with its primary objective being to facilitate interplanetary life. Meanwhile, NASA’s Artemis program is poised to make history by returning humans to the lunar surface. SpaceX envisions rapid reusability of its entire Starship fleet, comprising both the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster. To achieve this, the company must prove its ability to recover and refurbish both stages quickly enough to support repeated launches.
The primary objectives for this fifth flight are twofold, aiming to accomplish a historic milestone by successfully “catching” the Super Heavy booster at the launch site, as well as ensuring a precise on-target Starship reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
The latter goal has already been accomplished: reviewing the Starship’s higher stage performance during its recent mission in June. The innovative booster capture, as described by the corporation in a blog post, represents a singularly novel milestone in the history of rocketry.
While the closest analogue remains the now-routine Falcon 9 booster landings on autonomous barges and terrestrial touchdown zones. Tomorrow’s launch plan envisions the booster gradually hovering before gently placing itself within the designated zone defined by two “chopstick” arms attached to the launch tower. Once deployed, these arms would close around the booster, securing it in place once its engines stopped firing.
SpaceX is renowned for its meticulous adherence to rigorous standards, mandating thousands of precise displays of wholesome methodology throughout the car and pad to guarantee a successful landing. Prior to the culmination of a trajectory-adjusting manoeuvre commonly referred to as a boostback burn, approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds following liftoff, the mission’s Flight Director will issue a guidance command to the booster.
“If the command is not dispatched before completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks indicate unacceptable conditions for either Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will automatically default to a trajectory that culminates in a controlled touchdown and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico,” the company stated.
The entire booster launch and recovery process should ideally take no more than seven minutes. Following its indifferent separation, Starship will then climb to orbit ahead of entering into a descent trajectory over the Indian Ocean approximately one hour after liftoff.
As SpaceX awaits the launch license, engineers have been kept busy: conducting numerous tests on the launch tower, replacing the rocket’s entire thermal protection system with new tiles and a redundant ablative layer, and updating the ship’s software for re-entry purposes. Engineers successfully completed propellant loading tests and tested the launch pad’s water deluge system, a crucial safeguard designed to protect the pad from the intense heat generated by the booster’s 33 Raptor engines.
The corporation intends to relaunch the Starship’s higher stage to the landing site in the future, pending successful subsequent launch attempts.
“As Starship’s development progresses, with each successive flight building upon the lessons learned from its predecessor, SpaceX is poised to showcase fundamental aspects of its fully and rapidly reusable spacecraft, thanks to ongoing enhancements in both hardware and operations on either side of the vehicle.” “As we continue to challenge ourselves by testing our Starship hardware in flight, ensuring safe and regular operations are possible, we will rapidly bring the vehicle online and revolutionize humanity’s ability to access space.”
Tune in to our live webcast for a pre-launch briefing, starting 30 minutes prior to liftoff at 7:00 AM PST, on [date].
