SpaceX has passed an important check for the first stage of its Starship rocket, which is due to take off on January 11, 2025. An identical test is to be carried out for the second stage soon.
Testing continued at Starbase, Texas, throughout the day on December 9, 2024 to prepare for Starship’s seventh test flight around Earth. After a cold check of the engine, carried out during the weekend, the essential static firing took place on the first stage, the Super Heavy.
This step, systematically carried out by SpaceX before a real flight, consists of truly activating the propulsion without actually taking off. This step is carried out in two stages in the case of the Starship (once for the first stage, once for the second), which serves to independently verify each engine.
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SpaceX shared some photos and a video of this static firing on its social networks. The sequence, lasting just under twenty seconds, shows the 33 rocket engines in action, as well as the wall of water erected at the very beginning, in order to protect the installations from both heat and the shock wave. .
Later this month, or during January, SpaceX will therefore carry out a similar test for the second stage of the Starship, which will be a new generation copy. The success of the static firing will make it possible to prepare for the next phase of assembly of the two segments of the machine on the firing base, before D-day, set for January 11.
Reproduce the capture of the Starship’s first stage in the air
The seventh flight of the Starship will be a reissue of the fifth, if all goes well: the Super Heavy will in principle have to return to the Mechazilla launch tower to be caught just before hitting the ground (which saves the weight of a train ‘landing). But this delicate maneuver will only be attempted if all the lights are green.
During the sixth test, SpaceX experienced an unfavorable scenario at the very end of the mission. While all other aspects of the flight had gone well, the control center made the decision in the final minutes not to attempt the Super Heavy’s return to dry land, in the mechanical arms of the tower. The floor ended its course in the ocean.
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