Just a couple of weeks ago, SpaceX launched its fifth Starship rocket on its most successful and daring mission yet. It now has a regulatory open lane for a sixth mission, and if recent activity has anything to show for it, it could be sooner rather than later.
SpaceX’s fifth launch featured not only an overall clean launch of the full Starship rocket but also the historic first catch of a Super Heavy booster. This achievement is one of many milestones SpaceX needs to reach to prepare the vehicle not only for its role as a new commercial launcher but also as NASA’s Human Landing System for the Artemis Program.
A public battle took place, and still lingers in the capital, between SpaceX and the FAA prior to Flight 5. Although almost every Starship flight, to space or otherwise, has always seen some sort of angry midnight tweets from SpaceX’s chief executive, Elon Musk.
For Flight 6, however, the company has already gained approval from the FAA, given the trajectory is the same. The administration stated minor changes have already been approved for Flight 6 as they don’t differ too much from Flight 5’s plan, but anything further would require another deeper evaluation.
So with SpaceX no longer linked to the FAA driving the launch schedule, how long until the next booster and ship are tested and ready to fly? Well, that has already begun to take shape down in Starbase.
Last week, the company statically fired the Flight 6 Super Heavy booster at the orbital launch mount. This was only about a week post-flight. While the pad did have some refurbishment work done, it was not nearly as extensive as previous post-flight work. However, Starship’s first pad has been a continuous work in progress since it was “finished” a few years ago.
The next Starship upper stage, or ship, has been moved to its testing location at the old Massey’s gun range along the Rio Grande River. Both it and the booster will need to go through likely multiple more tests before a final flight attempt occurs.
SpaceX loves to move fast, although there were a few issues that weren’t seen right away that will have to be fixed. For instance, several flight parameters almost caused the landing to abort last second and crash into the surrounding wetlands. Also, metal sheets were ripped off part of the booster, exposing single point failure valves during flight.
During a call with Musk, which he apparently just shared without any context to X just to show off his Diablo gameplay, a SpaceX employee shared that they are working through a balance of risk reduction and speed to get to Flight 6 now that they aren’t worried about FAA approval.
With both pieces of hardware nearing flight readiness, Flight 6 I would expect will be nearly the same as Flight 5 (with likely some changes to operations while in space) and could be ready for flight in December. All this is based on the fact that the company is already in the flight test campaign; an even sooner date could be possible. It is SpaceX, after all.
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