SpaceX Ships Starship Super Heavy To Launch Pad Ahead Of IFT-4 Flight Test

After shifting gears to focus on the Falcon 9, the world's most successful, widely flown and recovered medium lift rocket both now and in history, SpaceX is now picking up pace with activity at its sites in Boca Chica, Texas. The close of the week proved to be an important one of the Starship program, as a filing from the FAA invited public comment on SpaceX's plans to build a new site in Florida. So far, Starship launches have remained in Texas as it is easier for SpaceX to test the rocket in a relatively isolated area.

Starship, which last flew in March and generated interest all over America, aims to become the first rocket in human history to take humans to Mars. So far, the full stack has launched thrice, and footage from local media in Texas shows that SpaceX might be gearing up for the fourth Starship launch.

SpaceX Picks Up Pace With Starship Rocket Development By Preparing For Multiple Test Flights

The second week of May has proven to be a busy one for the Starship program. SpaceX tested the upper stage Starship spacecraft, which is currently intended to fly the fifth Starship flight earlier this week, and within days, it has now shipped the booster that could power the fourth Starship test flight, or IFT-4.

Starship has remained the center of attention most of the time this year, both from SpaceX and the press. Earlier in the year, SpaceX first shared a presentation given by its chief Elon Musk in Texas. The presentation focused on SpaceX's long term plans for the Starship program, which included multiple rocket generations with growing power and capacity.

On the ground, SpaceX, unlike traditional aerospace firms and NASA, has multiple test rockets in varying stages of the production cycle. The latest Starship static fire test took place earlier this week and tested all six of its Raptor engines for roughly four seconds.

SpaceX Ships Starship Super Heavy Booster To Launch Pad After Recent Static Fire Test

Starship's importance to SpaceX's long term goals became starker this week after SpaceX's latest Starlink launch from California. This mission saw the firm launch 20 Starlink satellites, out of which 13 were for SpaceX's cellular network coverage. Unsurprisingly as Starlink has grown to add new features such as cellular connectivity and increase capacity and user speeds, the satellites have grown bigger. This has constrained the Falcon 9 rocket, despite SpaceX pushing it to launch as much as 20 times per booster.

A recent Falcon 9 launch took a European satellite to an orbit higher than a typical Starlink low Earth orbit. It also became the first time that SpaceX didn't recover a rocket booster in over a year. Its final mission made the booster the second in SpaceX's fleet to have flown 20 times, and at the live stream, the firm added that it aims to increase the number of flights per booster.

So far, the Falcon 9 has launched more than seven hundred Starlink satellites in 2024. Its four latest launches have been all Starlink missions, and the next launch, due tomorrow, with take another batch of 23 Starlink spacecraft to orbit.

With Starship, SpaceX will be able to launch the same number of satellites in a single go as it does in multiple Falcon missions. This bit is important, since not only is Amazon subsidiary Kuiper gearing up to launch its rival LEO constellation, but other firms are also developing fifth generation, satellite to cell networks.

Footage from local media in Texas saw SpaceX take hours to transport the massive Starship Super Heavy rocket booster to the launch site. The facility in Texas has production and assembly sites where SpaceX builds its rockets, and ahead of a test launch, the rockets typically undergo static fires and a wet dress rehearsal.

Ahead of today's move to the launch site, local authorities issued road closure notices informing residents of activity on the highways. The Starship booster roll out took place at night, and footage also showed the hot stage ring installed on its top.

This ring is a fresh addition to Starship's design, and SpaceX was forced to add it after the first Starship test flight saw the first and second stages fail to separate. Since then, it has performed to the mark, and during the second and third Starship flights, the second stage has managed to successfully blast away from the first without damaging it.

After the booster, before a wet dress rehearsal, SpaceX has to stack the second stage Starship on the rocket. SpaceX has already static fired the booster rolled out today, so it is possible that it will pick up the pace with the Starship IFT-4 test campaign. The second stage spacecraft has also seen a static fire, leaving few tests before SpaceX should feel comfortable with the fourth Starship test flight.

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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