Ticking off the milestones on the way to Starship Flight Test 7, that is. In this case, running a successful-looking static fire of Starship 33 on Sunday Dec 15 at Boca Chica Starbase.
Ship 33 during its static engine fire test, Dec. 15, 2024. (Image credit: SpaceX)
A video of the test from Space.com is here.
Its next launch, Integrated Flight Test-7 (IFT-7), is expected around Jan. 11, based on communications between NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has yet to issue a launch license for the upcoming test. Once mated, the Super Heavy/Starship stack towers a staggering 400 feet (122 meters) tall, with the Starship upper stage alone standing taller than the Statue of Liberty.
There has been no announcement of the intended mission, at least not one I've been able to see. IFT-6 back on November 18th was "mostly successful" but didn't complete one of it's major goals, to catch the SuperHeavy booster with the giant chopsticks as they accomplished on IFT-5. I assume that will be part of this test's goals as well. Since Ship 33 is second generation Starship and none have flown, this might be a step backwards to verify both the new things and everything that has already been tested all works as intended.
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