The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on December 17 issued SpaceX permission for the seventh test launch of the giant Starship rocket. Static testing of its 33 Raptor engines took place last week.
Image source: x.com/SpaceX
SpaceX has not yet set a date for the Starship Flight 7 mission, which is scheduled to launch from the company’s Starbase launch site. With less than two weeks remaining until the end of the year, the seventh test flight will likely take place in early or mid-January 2025. Officials in Cameron County, Texas, where Starbase is located, did not announce road closures for the remainder of December, the kind of notices that typically accompany test launches of the giant rocket.
Previously, SpaceX conducted tests – static burning of the engines of the upper stage of Starship and the Super Heavy booster, but they were not installed on each other before the flight. When fully assembled, Starship with 6 engines and Super Heavy with 33 engines are 122 m tall. At the end of the fifth test flight, SpaceX successfully captured the lower stage with “chopsticks” on the launch tower; the next mission failed to do this, but the upper stage of Starship made a soft landing in the waters of the Indian Ocean. The seventh flight will also attempt to capture the lower stage at the launch tower and “land Starship in the Indian Ocean west of Australia,” the FAA said.
In 2025, SpaceX intends to conduct up to 24 Starship test flights. The mission to refuel the carrier ship that will go to the Moon will require at least eight tests. In 2026, the head of the company, Elon Musk, hopes to send the first Starship to Mars.