ORLANDO, Fla. – SpaceX is preparing to launch the ninth flight test of its Starship rocket as early as Tuesday evening, with a 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time launch window.
What we know:
The launch will happen at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
The mission marks the first re-flight of a Super Heavy booster, which previously launched and returned during Starship’s seventh test flight. It also comes after engineers made multiple hardware upgrades following the loss of Starship during its eighth test earlier this year.
Next steps for Starship after 8th test flight explodes
Ken Kremer, Managing Editor for Space UpClose, joined FOX 35’s Garrett Wymer to discuss the next steps for Starship and SpaceX after the eighth flight test exploded. The Starship mission aims to bring astronauts back to the moon.
Dig deeper:
In this flight, both stages of the vehicle — the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage — are expected to conduct a series of flight experiments to improve system performance and data collection. Notably, the booster will attempt a controlled flip, a boostback burn, a descent at a higher angle of attack, and a new engine configuration for the final landing burn, which is expected to conclude with a hard splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship upper stage will repeat a suborbital trajectory, deploy eight Starlink simulator payloads, and conduct a planned in-space engine relight. Engineers have also removed a number of heat shield tiles from Starship to expose stress-prone areas and evaluate new metallic tile options — including one with active cooling — during atmospheric reentry.
This test flight plays a pivotal role in SpaceX’s broader goal of developing a fully reusable launch system capable of carrying humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.
As with all test flights, the schedule remains subject to change based on technical readiness and weather conditions.
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The Source: The information in this article comes from SpaceX.
