If all goes according to plan, we won’t have to wait too long to see the most powerful rocket in history take to the skies again.
SpaceX’s 400-foot (122-meter) Starship rocket has completed four test flights so far, and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk says a fifth flight is on the way.
“This is our fifth flight in four weeks,” Musk said on Friday (July 5). Via Xa social media platform he owns.
Starship consists of two elements: a first stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall upper stage spacecraft called Starship, or simply the Ship. Both are designed to be reusable.
Starship’s four test flights took place in April and November 2023, as well as on March 14 and June 6 of this year. All launches were from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near the southern Texas city of Brownsville.
The rocket’s performance has improved with each subsequent flight: For example, recent launches went perfectly according to plan, with Super Heavy and the ship separating on time and returning to Earth as scheduled, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean, respectively.
That success helps explain Flight 5’s relatively quick turnaround. Because Starship performed as expected on June 6, SpaceX had fewer problems to analyze for its next launch. And the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said No accident investigation was requiredTherefore, technical readiness, rather than regulatory approval, is the primary timeline driver for Flight 5.
If all goes according to plan, the fifth flight will feature an exciting new twist: SpaceX says it aims to again land its giant booster precisely on StarBase’s launch pad, an effort that will be aided by the “chopstick” arm of the facility’s launch tower.
The bold strategy will allow Starship to fly more frequently and inspect, refurbish and relaunch the boosters more quickly, Musk said.
