SpaceX will put its Starship megarocket through its paces on its third test flight.
The mission, which could launch as soon as March 14, will be significantly different than its two predecessors, with multiple and more ambitious goals for the two-stage, 400-foot-tall (122 meters) starship.
“Audacious goals include opening and closing the starship's payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration on the upper stage's beach stage, the first re-light of the Raptor engine while in space, and re-entering control of the starship,” SpaceX wrote. Job description.
“Flying on a new trajectory, the Starship aims to splash in the Indian Ocean,” the company added. “This new flight path enables us to test new techniques, such as engine burn-in, while increasing public safety.”
Related: SpaceX Fuels Largest Starship Megarocket in Test for 3rd Launch (Photos)
SpaceX is developing starships to help humanity colonize the Moon and Mars, as well as performing various exploration feats. The stainless steel vehicle – the largest and most powerful rocket ever built – is designed to be completely and quickly reusable.
Starship has made two test flights to date, both from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. Both aimed to send the phase over most of Earth's orbit with a splashdown aimed at the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. But in both cases it did not happen.
On first flight, in April 2023, the starship's two stages failed to separate as planned, and the vehicle was deliberately detonated four minutes after launch.
Starship fared much better on its second flight, launched in November 2023. The vehicle achieved nominal first-stage engine combustion, and its two stages were tabulated. According to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, the upper stage exploded eight minutes after launch while exhausting liquid oxygen, but this would not have happened in an operational flight.
“If we have a payload, we usually don't have liquid oxygen,” Musk said in a company update. Posted in SpaceX X On January 12. “So, paradoxically, if it had a payload, it would have reached orbit.”
SpaceX is targeting March 14 for the third test flight, but that date is not set in stone, the company notes in the mission statement.
The US Federal Aviation Administration recently concluded its investigation into what happened on the November Starship flight, but the company has yet to issue a license for a third launch as far as we know.
