Elon Musk hopes lightning will strike twice.
SpaceX plans to test its massive Starship rocket next week, following the successful capture of a superheavy booster with its “Mechazilla” arm last month.
This would be the company's fastest accomplishment yet for a rocket designed to take humans back to the moon and eventually Mars.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Starship's sixth test is scheduled for Monday, with the rocket scheduled to lift off from the Starbase launch pad in south Texas at 5 p.m. local time. said.
The company hopes to repeat its success in October, when its 232-foot-tall superheavy booster rocket returned to the launch pad seven minutes after takeoff, where it could be captured by the launch tower's mechanical arm and reused.
Starship is the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
SpaceX touted that it learned a lot from last month's test and said it was confident it could succeed again after upgrading the booster's propulsion system.
“The next Starship flight test aims to expand the range of ship and booster capabilities and move us closer to total system reuse,” the company said in a statement.
Starship is designed to be completely and rapidly reusable, saving SpaceX significant costs and resources and helping the company achieve its ultimate goal of pioneering travel to the Moon and Mars.
SpaceX has conducted five Starship test flights since April 2023, and each test has steadily achieved results.
During the first two attempts, in April and November last year, the mission was derailed by engine failure before the rocket could leave the launch pad.
Starship successfully launched in March, but its Falcon Super Heavy booster was destroyed about 460 meters out to sea, and it never returned to Earth as planned. Starship is believed to have disintegrated before its planned splashdown.
The fourth test launch, held in June, resulted in a successful launch and a controlled splashdown of the booster in the Gulf of Mexico and the vehicle itself in the Indian Ocean.
NASA is pinning its hopes on Starship's success, as it will be used to return to the moon in 2027-2028.
