SpaceX 6th Test Flight Scheduled for the 18th
SpaceX, the space company led by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is expected to attempt the 6th test flight of the lunar and Mars exploration spacecraft 'Starship' as early as the 18th (local time).
According to the SpaceX website on the 7th, Starship is currently preparing for takeoff at the spacecraft launch facility 'Starbase' located on the Boca Chica beach in southern Texas. The scheduled launch time is 4 PM Central Time on the 18th, but the company explained that the launch schedule may change later due to the nature of test flights.
SpaceX stated that through this test flight, it plans to expand the limits of the Starship spacecraft and rocket booster functions, and experiment with various technologies to increase the overall system's reuse rate. In particular, similar to the 5th test flight, it will attempt rocket booster post-launch landing, Raptor engine reignition in space, heat shielding experiments during atmospheric re-entry and descent, and maneuver changes.
SpaceX is accelerating the development completion of Starship by attempting the 6th test flight less than a month after the 5th test flight on the 13th of last month. In the previous 5th test flight, a groundbreaking technology was first attempted and immediately succeeded in the initial experiment, using the launch tower's "chopstick arms" called Mechazilla to catch the rocket booster in mid-air slightly above the ground. Also, the spacecraft, which is the second stage of Starship, completed a planned flight of about 75 minutes and smoothly splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
CEO Musk, who has been focusing on Starship development with the goal of human migration to Mars, emphasized on X (formerly Twitter) that "Starship is currently more than twice as powerful as the Saturn V rocket (used in the past U.S. Apollo program), and in about a year, it will be three times more powerful with 10,000 tons of thrust," adding, "Now it is possible to build a new world on Mars."
Starship is 50 meters long and 9 meters in diameter, designed to carry up to 150 tons internally, and when combined with the 'Super Heavy' booster (71 meters long) that launches this spacecraft, the total length of the launch vehicle reaches 121 meters. The Super Heavy rocket is rated as the most powerful rocket ever, with a thrust of 17 million pounds when operating normally.
CEO Musk added, "Starship is designed to be fully reusable by burning 80% liquid oxygen and 20% liquid methane (a very inexpensive propellant)," and "Now the cost per ton to reach space can be reduced by up to 10,000% compared to Saturn V."
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