Watch SpaceX launch Starship flight seven with Starlink satellite test

SpaceX launched the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, as the company looks to push development of the mammoth vehicle further, including with a crucial test for how to deploy satellites.

The company launched Starship from its private “Starbase” facility near Brownsville, Texas, shortly after 5:30 pm ET.

A few minutes later, the rocket’s “Super Heavy” booster returned to earth at the launch site, in SpaceX’s second successful “catch” during a flight.

There are no people on board the Starship flight. However, Elon MuskThe company will fly 10 “Starlink simulators” in the rocket’s cargo bay and plans to try to deploy the satellite-like objects once in space. This is a key test of the rocket’s capabilitiesas SpaceX needs Starship to deploy its largest and heaviest generation of Starlink satellites.

While SpaceX did not specify what the Starlink simulators are made of, mass simulators are commonly used in the development of rocket vehicles and are often simple metal or concrete structures that weigh about the same as the object. in question. Since the rocket has not yet entered orbit, the simulators are expected to follow a similar trajectory to the rocket and are designed to burn up during re-entry.

Assuming the launch goes according to plan, Starship will reach space and then travel halfway to Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing into the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.

The rocket booster returned after separation from the Starship and landed on the weapons of the company’s launch tower – a success that the company made. the fifth flight but missed the sixth.

As with every previous flight, SpaceX aims to push development further by evaluating additional Starship capabilities, including tests of its heat shield tiles and its intense re-entry trajectory.

Starship is critical to the company’s plans, even with his Valuation of $350 billion and already dominant positions in the space industry.

Starship is the tallest and most powerful missile ever launched. Fully stacked on top of the Super Heavy booster, Starship stands 403 feet tall and is approximately 30 feet in diameter. SpaceX has flown the complete Starship rocket system on six spaceflight tests so far by April 2023, at an ever-increasing cadence.

The Super Heavy booster, which is 232 feet tall, is what begins the rocket’s journey into space. At its core are 33 Raptor engines, which together produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust — about double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust of NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, which first launched in 2022.

Starship itself, at 171 feet tall, has six Raptor engines – three for use while in Earth’s atmosphere and three for operating in the vacuum of space.

The rocket is fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The complete system requires more than 10 million pounds of propellant for launch.

The Starship flying on this launch, marked as Ship 33, also represents a second generation version of the vehicle, called “Block 2”.

SpaceX noted that “significant upgrades” to this vehicle include changes to the flaps on the nose of the vehicle, redesigns of its propulsion system to enhance performance, an enhanced flight computer, 30 cameras placed along the vehicle for rocket monitoring and an enhanced heat shield. .

Also, the booster for this flight attempt features a reused Raptor engine. That engine flew during the fifth test flight last year.

The Starship system is designed to be fully reusable and aims to become a new method of flying cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also critical to NASA’s plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a manned lunar lander as part of NASA’s Luna Artemis program.