It’s still unclear how long SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9 rocket will remain grounded while engineers investigate a rare launch failure from last week, but the next test flight of the company’s next-generation Starship vehicle appears to be on schedule for launch next month.
On Monday, SpaceX tested the 33 Raptor engines on the Starship rocket’s Super Heavy Booster at the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. The methane-fueled engines fired for about eight seconds, long enough for SpaceX engineers to verify that all systems were functioning normally. At full power, the 33 engines produced nearly 17 million pounds of thrust, twice the output of NASA’s legendary Saturn V moon rocket.
SpaceX confirmed that the static fire test had reached its full duration, and teams were venting methane and liquid oxygen from the rocket, referred to as Booster 12 in the company’s ship and booster inventory. The upper stage for the next Starship test flight, known as Ship 30, completed static fire testing of its six Raptor engines in May.
During Starship’s fourth flight on June 6, SpaceX successfully guided the Super Heavy booster back to a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico east of Starbase. The ship continued into space, completing a half-circle of the planet before re-entering the atmosphere for a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
This was the first time SpaceX had managed to get the booster and spacecraft close to their planned water landing sites. The Super Heavy booster’s precise water landing gave SpaceX officials the confidence to recover the booster on the next flight to Starbase, where giant articulated arms – colloquially known as “chopsticks” – on the launch tower will attempt to catch the rocket as it slowly hovers above the launch pad.
Kathy Lueders, SpaceX’s general manager at Starbase, told residents last month that SpaceX is still considering attempting a booster capture on the next flight. The capture concept is bold and very different from the way SpaceX recovers Falcon 9 boosters, but SpaceX officials believe it is the best method to recover boosters for quick reuse. Earlier this month, SpaceX released a teaser video for the next Starship flight that suggests a booster capture attempt is back on the table.
Sustained static fire from Flight 5’s Super Heavy booster pic.twitter.com/8rF9KUdMUD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 15, 2024
SpaceX will also use the fifth Starship test flight to test an improved heat shield on the spacecraft’s upper stage after heat from reentry damaged the spacecraft during landing on the final flight last month. In a hangar just a short drive from the launch pad, technicians are replacing thousands of ceramic tiles on Ship 30’s outer skin.
Once that work is complete, SpaceX will place the ship on the launch vehicle and possibly perform a full countdown test run a few days before the first launch attempt, which could be as early as August.
Meanwhile, construction of a second launch pad at Starbase is underway. Construction crews have stacked the first segments of the lattice launch tower a short distance from the existing Starship launch pad. Within a few years, SpaceX aims to have two active launch pads in Texas and two Starship launch sites in Florida to support the increasing Starship flight rate.
These Starship missions will launch Starlink internet satellites, conduct in-orbit refueling tests, and support NASA’s Artemis lunar program.