SpaceX wants to bring the developed spacecraft back into space. This time there are fewer explosions and the first time we’ll fly with a super heavy booster that has been reused.
The giant combination of rockets and spacecraft are targeting a lift-off from the company’s Texas site Starbase during a 60-minute window opened at EDT (6:30pm CDT) at 7:30pm.
This is the hardware under development aimed at being an alternative to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy Rockets, and is ranked 9th overall, with its third launch attempt this year.
However, both attempts in 2025 ended with the collapse of the upper spacecraft spacecraft after launching the path of debris visible from South Florida and the Caribbean.
🚨New feature: An incredible view of Spaceship 7 that broke the Turks and Caicos tonight
Imagine watching this on your house🤣pic.twitter.com/ndydetk4wc
– Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 16, 2025
However, the Federal Aviation Administration has tried the spacecraft and attempted its ninth suborbital mission with the aim of releasing it, with the aim of releasing it, with the aim of releasing it, focusing on the world landing in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.
“After completing the investigation into the loss of the spacecraft during the eighth flight test, several hardware changes have been made to improve reliability,” the company posted on its website.
One of the things that worked in both January and Mach’s launch attempts was the successful recapture of the super heavy booster at the launch site. The booster, which flew on the spacecraft’s seventh test flight in January, is being used in Tuesday’s attempt.
The Caszilla caught a super heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/aq91tloyzy
– SpaceX (@spacex) January 16, 2025
For safety reasons, SpaceX will not try to regain it on this flight on its launch site, instead heading for a landing site in the Gulf waters of hard splashdown landing.
“In addition to reuse milestones, Super Heavy will fly a variety of experiments aimed at generating data to improve the performance and reliability of future boosters,” SpaceX posted. “The spacecraft’s upper stage repeats suborbital orbital and target target targets that were not reached in two previous flight tests. This includes initial payload deployment from the spacecraft and multiple re-entry experiments aimed at returning the vehicle to the launch site for a catch.”
Booster refighting speeded up test flights, and the FAA recently increased the potential flights of SpaceX from Texas to 25 a year.
This particular booster reuses 29 of the 33 Raptor engines.
“The lessons learned from the renovation of the initial booster and performance on subsequent flights will allow for a faster turnaround in the future as it progresses towards a vehicle that does not require practical maintenance during launch,” SpaceX posted.
In the upper stage, you try to run the deployment of eight StarLink simulators. This is something that could not be performed on the last two flights after the stage was destroyed early in the flight plan.
SpaceX aims to run one of the Raptor engine playback even during flight.
“The flight test includes several experiments focused on allowing Starship to return to the launch site,” SpaceX posted. “A significant number of tiles have been removed from the spacecraft to stress-test vulnerable areas throughout the vehicle during re-entry. Multiple metal tile options, including active cooling, test alternative materials to protect the spacecraft during re-entry.”
The company said it is trying to push the limits of re-entry to obtain the best thermal protection system for future flights.
So far, all launches have come from Texas, but the company is building two launch sites on the space shore.
Over 400 feet tall, generating thrusts of over 16 million pounds on lift-off, the booster has yet to launch orbit, but is the largest and most powerful rocket to reach space.
NASA has a vested interest in the system in which the system is completed, as it is tapped as the human landing system for the Artemis III mission, which is trying to bring humans back to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
“Development testing by definition is unpredictable. However, by placing hardware as often as possible in a flight environment, design changes can be quickly learned and performed with the aim of bringing Starship online as a complete and fast reusable vehicle,” SpaceX posted.
