SpaceX Plans Another Launch Attempt for Starship

SpaceX announced on Friday its intention to launch its colossal spacecraft next week.

The company stated on its website that the ninth flight test for the Starship will take place on Tuesday, May 27th, starting at 6:30 PM local time (2330 GMT) from a Texas launch site.

Two earlier test flights of this massive rocket had to be aborted.

In both instances, the upper stage of the rocket was lost, although the super heavy booster managed to get caught in the mechanical “chopsticks” of the launch tower, which is quite an engineering achievement.

To date, Starship has undergone eight integrated test flights with the Super Heavy Booster, achieving four successes and experiencing four explosions.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered investigations and paused all SpaceX flights but permitted the company to resume operations with modifications to the rocket on Thursday.

This upcoming flight will be the first to utilize one of SpaceX’s recovered super heavy boosters again.

However, instead of returning to Starbase for another catch attempt, it will be used for various flight tests aimed at gathering real performance data before concluding with a hard splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Starship stands at 403 feet tall (123 meters), roughly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty, and it is designed for complete reusability in the future.

Elon Musk’s company is focusing on rapidly launching multiple Starship prototypes to address issues quickly, though this approach has faced its share of criticism.

In 2023, several environmental groups filed lawsuits against the FAA, alleging it did not adequately assess the environmental impacts of these test flights.

Despite the backlash, the FAA approved an increase in the number of Starship rocket launches per year from 5 to 25 at SpaceX’s Texas facility.