SpaceX Releases Starship Test Flight 7 Plans

Last Friday, Jan. 3, SpaceX released some detailed information on the plans for Flight Test 7.  The liftoff has been moved to Saturday, Jan. 11 at 8:00 AM EST. 

That blue text link above the video in this jpeg file leads to this page.

This vehicle is referred to as, "Starship-Super Heavy Block 1/2" on Next Spaceflight which implies "Starship is Block 1 and the Super Heavy (booster) is Block 2. (At least it implies that to me...) while the SpaceX page emphasizes the changes for Starship, which implies the ship is Block 2. They then go into listing the changes one by one.  

The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted forward and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling. 

Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25 percent increase in propellant volume, the vacuum jacketing of feedlines, a new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and reading sensors, all add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions.

The ship’s heat shield will also use the latest generation tiles and includes a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.

Starship's avionics were also upgraded.  Avionics upgrades include a more powerful flight computer, integrated antennas which combine Starlink, GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), and backup RF communication functions into each unit, and much more - including more than 30 vehicle cameras giving engineers more insight into the entire vehicle during flight.

Another totally new feature of this flight will be a test of the "Pez dispenser" that will release 10 Starlink simulators (not functional Starlink satellites).  These will be on the same suborbital path as the Starship, which has its splashdown planned for the Indian ocean.  With no way to slow their speed for reentry, I'm sure they'll burn up on the way down.  For this test, instead of Starlink mock-ups, they could push out actual super-jumbo Pez candies with added weights.

The Super Heavy booster will reuse flight hardware for the first time, with one engine used on Flight Test 5 being used on this flight.  With the tower grab of Super Heavy being cancelled during Test 6, you'd expect that SpaceX has done work on the launch (and catch) tower to increase reliability for a booster catch.  This includes adding protections to the sensors on the tower chopsticks that were damaged at launch. This damage was a cause of the booster being diverted offshore on Flight Test 6. 

They wrap up the description with this:

This new year will be transformational for Starship, with the goal of bringing reuse of the entire system online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate towards being able to send humans and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

By now, you've probably heard they want to do 25 Starship launches this year or roughly one every other week. Since this launch will be in the second week of the year, they're off to a good start.

Screen capture from the Flight Test 6 video at this SpaceX page on X.  Image credit SpaceX