SpaceX is poised to launch the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, as the company looks to push further development of the massive vehicle, including a key satellite deployment test.
The company has one hour, from 5:00 PM ET to 6:00 PM ET, to launch the Starship from its private “Starbase” facility near Brownsville, Texas. If SpaceX is unable to launch within that time frame due to weather or technical reasons, the company will postpone the attempt to a later date.
There will be no people on the Starship flight. However, Elon MuskHis company flies 10 “Starlink simulators” in the rocket’s payload bay and plans to try to deploy satellite-like objects once in space. This is a a key test of missile capabilitybecause SpaceX needs Starship to deploy its much larger and heavier upcoming generation of Starlink satellites.
Although SpaceX did not specify what the Starlink simulators are made of, mass simulators are commonly used in rocket vehicle development and are often simple structures made of metal or concrete that weigh about the same as the object in question. Because the rocket does not reach orbit, the simulators are expected to follow a trajectory similar to the rocket and are designed to burn up during reentry.
Assuming the launch goes according to plan, the Starship would reach space and then travel halfway around the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.
In addition, the rocket’s “Super Heavy” booster would return after separating from the Starship and land in the arms of the company’s launch tower—a feat that the company accomplished fifth flight but missed with the sixth.
A Starship rocket sits on the launch pad during inclement weather on January 14, 2025 near Boca Chica, Texas.
Sergio Flores | Afp | Getty Images
As with each previous flight, SpaceX aims to drive further development by evaluating the Starship’s additional capabilities, including tests of its heat shield tiles and its intensive re-entry trajectory.
The Starship is crucial to the company’s plans, even with its own Estimate 350 billion dollars and already a dominant position in the space industry.
Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Fully mounted on a Super Heavy booster, the Starship is 397 feet tall and about 30 feet in diameter. SpaceX has flown the entire Starship rocket system on six spaceflight tests so far since April 2023, an ever-increasing cadence.
The Super Heavy booster, which is 232 feet tall, is what begins the rocket’s journey into space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines, which together produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust—roughly twice the 8.8 million pounds of thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which launched for the first time in 2022.
The 165-foot-tall Starship itself has six Raptor engines—three for use in Earth’s atmosphere and three for operation in the vacuum of space.
The rocket is powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The entire system requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant for launch
TOPSHOT – A SpaceX Starship takes off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas on November 19, 2024, for Starship Flight 6 testing.
Chandan Khanna | Afp | Getty Images
The Starship flying on this launch, designated as Ship 33, also represents the second generation vehicle, called “Block 2”.
SpaceX noted that the vehicle’s “significant upgrades” include changes to the vehicle’s nose flaps, a redesign of its propulsion system to increase performance, an improved flight computer, 30 cameras mounted along the vehicle to track the rocket, and an enhanced heat shield.
The Starship system is designed to be fully reusable and aims to become a new method of flying cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also critical to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a manned lunar lander as part of NASA’s Artemis moon program.
