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Space is continuing its testing activities in Texas for Starship Flight 5 as it heads to the test, which is now scheduled to take place in late November at the earliest. Starship's fifth test flight will be the third of its kind in 2024, and the first to see SpaceX try to catch the Super Heavy booster with the launch tower's catch arms.
As part of its tests and other activities, SpaceX stripped its earliest Starship prototype earlier this week, fired up Raptor engines in ground tests, ran a static fire of the second stage Starship for the sixth test flight and worked with the tower arms for what appear to be flight simulations.
SpaceX Tests Raptor & Tower Arms As It Waits For Fifth Starship Test Flight In November
According to footage from local media, SpaceX removed the outer layer of its first Starship prototype called Starhopper earlier this week. Starhopper flew for the first time in July 2019 in what was the first flight test of the Starship program. It then flew for 150 meters a month later in August, and since then, the prototype with a single Raptor engine had been retired as SpaceX moved forward with testing full scale Starship second stages.
After shifting Starhopper to the parking lot from its launch site, SpaceX spent some time on Tuesday removing the test article's outer layers. The reason behind this is unclear, but Starhopper had taken some damage during Starship's integrated test flight last year, which saw the launch site experience the full fury of Super Heavy's Raptor engines without a deluge system to absorb the force.
Apart from working with its first prototype, SpaceX is also conducting Raptor engine tests at its test site in McGregor. The firm's latest Starship rocket engine series is the Raptor 3, unveiled earlier this year and is a vastly simplified design over its predecessor.
Additionally, additional footage shows that SpaceX tested the launch tower's arms today, presumably as part of preparations for the fifth Starship test. Starship Flight 5 will take place in late November at the earliest, and SpaceX is using this time to further fine-tune one of the riskiest aspects of the Starship test profile. It will attempt to catch the 232 feet tall Starship Super Heavy booster with the tower arms during Flight 5, and the firm moved the arms to the top of the tower before conducting eight separate tests.
The biggest - and fieriest - Starship test, though, was of the upper stage. SpaceX officially confirmed late last night that it had conducted a six engine static fire on the Flight 6 Starship second stage. A static fire is one of the few final tests before launch, and provided that SpaceX also puts the booster for the sixth test flight under similar paces and faces no surprises or anomalies during the November test, then 2024 could see the firm close out its Starship testing with four full stack flights under its belt.
Additionally, as per statements made by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, if Starship Flight 5 and Flight 6 see a successful soft splashdown in the ocean, then SpaceX might consider trying to bring the second stage ship back to the launch site in Flight 7. Earlier this year, Musk shared that SpaceX is aiming for at least three successful soft upper stage splashdowns before risking a launch site return due to debris and heat shield tiles falling off during reentry.
Six engine static fire of Flight 6 Starship pic.twitter.com/fzJz9BWBn6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 19, 2024
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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