Orbital refueling of a Starship (illustration).
© SpaceX
Space has become exciting again, almost as much as in the golden age of the first Russian and American missions. The Starship is of course the current megastar of rockets thanks to its excess and its great firsts. This was the case on October 13 with the Mechazilla tower which caught up with a (huge) rocket stage for the very first time in history.
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A month later, a new test is announced at 11 p.m. (Paris time), Monday, November 18, or 4 p.m. in Boca Chica (Texas) where the Starbase is located. Will Elon Musk celebrate the victory of his foal Donald Trump in the presidential election there on the occasion of this sixth Starship test? No one would be surprised if the “president-elect” made an appearance, especially since the risk of failure is quite limited, we will see why.
SpaceX is planning a Starship launch every 15 days soon!
This pace of launches may seem pretty crazy, less than five weeks after SpaceX's legendary feat. This pace is nevertheless necessary to meet the deadlines imposed by the contract signed with NASA, which plans during the Artemis 3 mission to land two astronauts on the Moon in 2026 using the upper stage of the Starship. To achieve this, Elon Musk and SpaceX have already revealed their objective of one flight every 15 days in a fairly short time. This extreme pace therefore requires regular performance, without a hitch, and we now know that the Super Heavy catch in October came just one second from self-destruction!
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Here is the ITF-6 flight plan for November 18 (click on the image):
You will say to yourself that it looks a lot like the ITF-5, and this is true and logical for several reasons. First, the FAA, which manages flight authorizations, had issued the agreement for ITF-5 and 6 at the same time, having similar flight plans. Indeed, if there is a significant modification, a new application must be filed according to the rules of the American federal authority. Furthermore, if the flight with recovery on October 13 worked, it was a bit of a miracle and we will have to do much better this time, particularly on the thermal protections which tend to heat up too much, or even burn. This is good, new materials will be put to the test during the next launch.
Crucial new feature: the re-ignition of the Starship's Raptor engine to finally aim for a real orbital flight!
Until now, Starship tests have remained just below orbit (minimum 160 km altitude), following a ballistic trajectory to prevent the vessel from becoming debris in the event that the flight is not controlled. It is therefore a major issue, an obligation for SpaceX to quickly achieve the re-ignition of the engines in quasi-orbit. This re-ignition is also a condition for achieving in-flight refueling in 2025, absolutely necessary for the Artemis lunar missions and future Martian missions, both of which are very demanding in fuel.
It is also likely that this Starship model will be the last of its generation, Elon Musk's space company having announced that the ITF-7 will fly a Starship V2 with software developments, larger tanks and flaps (fins). in French) redesigned mobiles. The latter have in fact been a problem for a long time: they heat up too much during atmospheric reentry, as we saw again during the last flight.
The Starship's flaps catch fire during atmospheric reentry.
© SpaceX
Please note, the firing window for this imminent flight is only 30 minutes, between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. local time.
The announcement of the November 18 date came at the same time as SpaceX's official video of last October's test. No, we never get tired of it!
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