As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported on social network X, the rocket system for launching Starship on its fifth test flight is ready for the mission and is awaiting regulatory approval. Static pre-launch tests of all booster engines and the spacecraft were successfully completed earlier last month. The rocket is completely ready for launch.
Image source: Spacex
To date, Starship has completed four flights on the Super Heavy booster: two last year and two this year. The process of production and launch of complexes is obviously accelerating. This confirms the start of preparation of the ship and booster for the sixth test flight even before the fifth. The work is being carried out in parallel, Musk explained in the same message on the X network.
The fourth test launch of the accelerator and rocket on June 6, 2024 became a landmark for the developer – for the first time, both components of the rocket made a soft landing. As Musk put it: “They splashed down undamaged.” Although some parts from the ship did fall off during the process. The landing was on water with the loss of both the booster and the ship. During the new fifth test flight of the complex, for the first time, an attempt will be made to pick up the accelerator with the movable supports of the launch truss – “chopsticks,” as SpaceX affectionately calls them.
The approval from the regulator, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), should not be delayed. Moreover, after the fourth test flight, the FAA allowed the company to conduct new test flights without investigating non-significant accidents. It is possible that this will speed up the sixth test launch and subsequent ones. The Starship rocket is needed not only for the future colonization of Mars, it is seen as a key ingredient in returning humans to the Moon in the Artemis program. The Starship ships will carry landing modules to the Moon and become shuttles for lowering astronauts to the surface of the satellite and back.