SpaceX sends its Starship rocket on a 7th suborbital test flight from Starbase – Spaceflight Now

SpaceX is preparing to kick off the new year with suborbital flights around the world with a launch of its nearly 40-story-tall Starship rocket from South Texas on Thursday afternoon.

The company is nearing the point where it can transition to orbital flights with the two-stage launcher, but is still iterating on the vehicle, from its altitude and flap design, to avionics and launch support systems.

Departure of the Starship Flight 7 mission from the Starbase facilities in Boca Chica, Texas, is set for 16 CST (17:00 EST, 2200 UTC), the opening of a 60-minute launch window.



The weather played spoiler for most of the week for not only SpaceX, but launch competitor Blue Origin, the latter of which was finally able to launch its first New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral earlier Thursday.

The two companies exchanged support for each other as they both ended up with a tent mission on the same day. The coincidence of these rockets targeting the same launch day created a fervor among space fans called ‘Star Glenn’, a tribute to the so-called Barbenheimer craze that swept moviegoers when ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ were released in cinemas at the same time.

“Congratulations to the Blue Origin team for reaching orbit!” SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Thank you on behalf of the entire team,” replied Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp. “Looking for a good flight for you today!”

“Good luck today @elonmusk and the entire SpaceX team!!” Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos wrote in a separate post. Musk congratulates Bezos in an earlier post on X.

The Catch (Take 3)

SpaceX is currently hitting .500 when it comes to being able to capture the Super Heavy booster with its launch tower named ‘Mechazilla.’ The capability is a key part of the company’s plan to make the launch vehicle rapidly reusable.

After a successful capture on their first attempt during the Starship Flight 5 mission in October, SpaceX hoped for a repeat performance the following month.

.@SpaceX successfully captured his Super Heavy Booster for the first time on the Flight 5 mission. The starship’s upper stage continues to sail towards making a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Watch live:

: @w_robinsonsmith for space flight now pic.twitter.com/WSH8Ng0SqP

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) 13 October 2024

In a statement to its website, SpaceX noted that some of the sensors on the launch tower were damaged during the launch of Flight 6, ultimately preventing a capture attempt. The booster was diverted for a propulsive descent and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Several radar sensors will be tested on the tower’s chopsticks with the goal of increasing accuracy when measuring distances between the chopsticks and a reentry vehicle during capture,” SpaceX wrote.

For Flight 7, SpaceX upgraded hardware on the turret to protect the sensors. That said, if there is another problem, either on the tower or the booster, SpaceX can again divert to the aquatic end for the Super Heavy booster, tail number B14.

“Specific vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to return and capture of the Super Heavy booster, which requires healthy systems on the booster and turret and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director,” SpaceX said. “If this command is not sent before the completion of the boostback burn, or if automatic health checks show unacceptable conditions with the Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that will lead it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico .”

Taking an important step toward reusability, the B14 will fly with a refurbished engine that was used during Flight 5. Comments from SpaceX founder Elon Musk on the X suggest that it is Raptor number 314, which has a sticker around the number in shape of a slice of pie (insert joke rimshot here).

SpaceX said it also plans to capture the ship’s upper stage at some point during 2025. Musk indicated it could happen as soon as Flight 8, but that’s not a guarantee.

“This new year will be transformative for Starship, with the goal of bringing system-wide recycling online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate toward being able to send people and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars,” SpaceX said. .

Ode to Starlink

Flight 7 will not be the first mission to go into orbit, and therefore will not put the Version 3 edition of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. However, it plays a key role in achieving this future.

Aboard the ship’s upper stage, tail number S33, are 10 of what SpaceX called “Starlink simulators,” which it said are “similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise in a satellite launch mission.

“The Starlink simulators will be in the same suborbital orbit as Starship and are expected to disappear upon entry,” SpaceX said. “A relight of a single Raptor engine in space is also planned.”

The resignation of a Raptor vacuum engine will be key not only for future low-Earth orbit missions and to perform a de-orbit burn after a mission’s conclusion, but also for NASA’s Artemis program.

Starships will serve as landers that take astronauts down to the lunar surface and back up during both the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions. Prior to the human support missions, SpaceX will perform an unmanned landing and ascent demonstration.

On Monday, ahead of the launch of 10 NASA payloads aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander, Spaceflight Now spoke with Joel Kearns, deputy assistant administrator for Exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. He said in addition to the performance of the landing demo by SpaceX, there is a possibility that scientific instruments can fly to the Moon with it.

“NASA is generally looking at it and having discussions with SpaceX for whether there’s a specific NASA payload that’s not just letting SpaceX through Starship demonstrate their vehicle capability that would be appreciated,” Kearns said. “These discussions are ongoing.”

Just as the Blue Ghost lander serves as Firefly’s method of executing missions for NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Program, Starship serves the same function for SpaceX. At this time, however, SpaceX has not been awarded a CLPS contract mission.

“SpaceX is one of the 14 companies in CLPS, but you know, SpaceX is very focused on Starship both to provide the Starship version for the Human Landing System and also for their own corporate goals with Starship,” Kearns said.

“I’m sure once it’s better understood what the real technical capabilities and costs of Starship are, I really wouldn’t be surprised if SpaceX had some ideas on how to bring CLPS, as cargo, to The moon when they have all that turned out.”

Ship block 2

The upper stage of the Starship Flight 7 vehicle, S33, will be the first of the Block 2 variant for SpaceX. It is 52 meters (171 ft) tall with a diameter of 9 m (29.5 ft). It is almost two meters taller than the Block 1 variant.

This new version of the fully integrated Starship rocket is now 123 meters (403 ft) tall. In addition to the height increase, SpaceX also performed some important structural design changes both internally and externally to the rocket.

“The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and offset toward the tip of the vehicle and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to re-entry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiles,” SpaceX said.

“Propulsion system redesign, including a 25 percent increase in propellant volume, the vacuum jacket of feed lines, a new fuel delivery system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module that controls the vehicle’s valves and load sensors all add further to the vehicle’s performance and the ability to fly longer missions.”

SpaceX is also testing upgrades to the upper stage heat shield, which will include a backup layer “to protect against missing or damaged tiles.”

Internally, the company said the ship’s avionics received a massive overhaul, “adding additional capability and redundancy for increasingly complex missions such as propellant transfer and the ship’s return to the launch site.”

“Avionics upgrades include a more powerful flight computer, integrated antennas that combine Starlink, (Global Navigation Satellite System) and backup (radio frequency) communications capabilities in each unit, redesigned inertial navigation and star tracking sensors, integrated smart batteries and power units that distribute data and 2.7 MW of power across the ship to 24 high-voltage actuators and an increase to more than 30 vehicle cameras, giving engineers insight into hardware performance across the vehicle during flight,” SpaceX said.