It was just over a month ago that Starship Flight Test 7 took off from Starbase Boca Chica in a short-lived mission that ended over Caribbean islands when the Starship itself exploded.
According to a notice published today by the Federal Aviation Administration, the next test flight of a Starship could take place as early as Wednesday Feb. 26, in a launch window they list as lasting until March 6.
Company sources confirmed that this launch date is plausible, but it's also possible that the launch could slip a day or two to Thursday or Friday of next week.
Screen capture of the FAA site.
The launch window is shown as opening at 2330 - in UTC. That's 5:30 PM local (CST): 6:30 Eastern and, well, you know.
An important potential "gotcha" here is that FAA hasn't completed the investigation of the FT-7 incident, but in issuing this announcement, they show they're expecting to complete it before the start of the week long window.
SpaceX has been testing both booster and ship for this flight, and they might well have tested all of the modifications done to the ship (34) because they did the longest static fire I've ever seen, a full minute instead of the usual (roughly) 10 second firing (details in a 22 minute NASASpaceflight video here). It seems likely that everything will be ready for this Flight Test by the start of the FAA approved window.
SpaceX hasn't presented a flight plan, but it seems like a pretty sure thing that they'll use the same basic plan as IFT-7, since the tests of the "taller, heavier, smarter, Block 2 Starship" were the essence of the mission. After IFT-6, Elon had posted to X that they would do one more ocean landing of a ship and then switch to attempting to catch the Starship the same way they catch the SuperHeavy booster. It makes me assume that this mission will do an ocean landing.
And by the way: I rechecked that link to X and Elon has changed his name back to Elon Musk from Harry Bolz. Now I'm kicking myself for not looking it up and doing a screen capture with the alternate name.
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ReplyDeleteOne Dollar, bet, they do a Starship catch surprising us all. Or, a water landing off shore from the test site, everything but the actual catch. Why not, they potentially have the ship in orbit, only need a modified flight plan, off coast of Australia or Texas, same difference. Be a pretty decent media stunt.
ReplyDeleteCouple days ago the tower construction crew was testing the chopsticks on tower #2, they don't need the new stage zero set to be installed soon for a catch.