SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that the fifth flight test of its Starship launch vehicle will be in “about 3 weeks,” marking a significant delay from his previous timeline.
What Happened: On Saturday, Musk took to X to provide the fresh timeline which pegs the next flight test for around the end of August, marking a delay of about a month.
In July, Musk had pegged the test flight for around August 2.
Last week, SpaceX announced that the vehicle is ready ahead of its fifth test flight and awaiting regulatory approval. While the company waits for the green light from regulators, it will conduct additional testing, the company added.
For the upcoming flight, the goal is to catch Starship's booster back at Starbase using the launch tower’s mechanical arms, marking a significant demonstration of Starship's reusability.
SpaceX is currently looking to ensure full reusability for its Starship rocket. The company believes reusing rockets is integral to bringing down spaceflight costs as the most cost is taken up in building the launch vehicle.
Possible Reasons For Delay: SpaceX had paused all launch operations for two weeks in July following a mishap with a Starlink mission launched on July 11. The 20 Starlink satellites were deployed in a lower-than-intended orbit owing to an issue with the rocket’s second-stage engine, leading to the demise of the satellites. The company subsequently paused operations.
It resumed operations in late July after investigating the root cause of the mishap with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and deploying necessary design changes on its Falcon vehicle to prevent a recurrence of the issue.
The company also showcased the revamped version of the Raptor engine used in Starship earlier this month which needs no heat shields and provides more thrust than older versions.
Past Flight Tests: SpaceX has conducted four flight tests with the Starship thus far.
SpaceX last launched Starship in the first half of June. During the test, the two stages of the vehicle – the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster – separated, and the booster subsequently had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft ignited its engines and went into space, made a controlled re-entry to Earth, and had a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
The entire flight lasted one hour and six minutes from launch. The key object of the flight was to re-enter Earth and the mission achieved it while withstanding damage to the vehicle.
The flights before accomplished less. While the spacecraft failed to reach space in the first flight, it reached space and exploded in the second test flight. During the third flight test, the spacecraft broke apart when re-entering Earth's atmosphere from space.
Why It Matters: Starship is touted as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, standing 121 meters tall and weighing approximately 5,000 tonnes. SpaceX is expected to have at least six test flights of the Starship this year, as per CEO Elon Musk‘s latest estimate from March.
NASA is currently relying on the success of Starship to land humans back on the moon as part of its Artemis program. The last crewed lunar mission occurred in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
Musk, meanwhile, is hopeful that the Starship will enable the company to take humans to Earth’s neighboring planet Mars as well in the future.
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