SpaceX's Starship To Fly Again In Less Than 2 Weeks

Elon Musk‘s rocket manufacturing company SpaceX said on Wednesday that it is planning the next and sixth flight of its Starship launch vehicle as early as Nov. 18.

What Happened: “As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates,” the company said.

For the next test flight, the company aims to catch Starship’s booster back at the launch site as on the last flight and splash down the upper stage in the Indian Ocean.

The company said that future Starship vehicles, starting from the one planned for the seventh flight test, will feature “significant upgrades.” They will have redesigned forward flaps, larger propellant tanks, and the latest generation tiles and secondary thermal protection layers, it said.

Past Flights: On Starship's fifth flight test in October, it lifted off from Starbase, and the booster returned to Earth after propelling Starship to space. The booster was subsequently caught by the launch tower at Starbase.

The Starship, meanwhile, went on to space and splashed down on target in the Indian Ocean.

The recovery of the booster was a key objective of the flight test and demonstrated the reusability of the Starship's design. SpaceX is aiming to make the Starship a completely reusable spacecraft that can fly multiple times, thereby reducing the cost of spaceflight.

Why It Matters: Starship is key to NASA’s dreams of taking humans back to the surface of the Moon.

NASA’s Artemis 3 mission slated to launch no earlier than September 2026 is expected to enable humans to land back on the surface of the moon with the help of a lunar lander variant of the Starship spacecraft. The last time humans set foot on the Moon was in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.

Musk, meanwhile, is eyeing taking humans to Earth’s neighboring planet Mars aboard the Starship. In September, he said that the first Starship launch to Mars is expected in 2026 and that it will not have a crew on board.

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Photo courtesy: SpaceX