SpaceX is planning to launch its massive Starship rocket on its sixth flight test early next week, a flight that’s expected to see another attempt at securing the first-stage Super Heavy booster as it returns to Earth minutes after deploying the upper-stage Starship spacecraft to orbit.
SpaceX chief Elon Musk shared a video on social media on Thursday showing last month’s fifth test when giant mechanical arms on the launch tower successfully secured the 70-meter-tall Super Heavy as it performed a landing burn during its spectacular descent.
“Starship flight 6 coming up soon!” Musk wrote in the post.
Starship Flight 6 coming up soon!
pic.twitter.com/WgtLjxsP52— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2024
SpaceX is targeting Monday, November 18, for the sixth test flight of the enormous Starship vehicle, which could one day transport crew and cargo to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
The flight team is currently setting up the rocket on the launchpad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, the site of all of the previous Starship launches.
The first one took place in April last year but only lasted a matter of seconds as an anomaly prompted engineers to blow up the rocket over the Gulf of Mexico. Each of the following four flights improved on the previous one, with the Super Heavy achieving stage separation to send the Starship vehicle to orbit.
SpaceX is also preparing a modified version of the Starship spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2026, which will put the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the moon.
There’s still much testing to be done with the Starship, but each flight is giving engineers a huge amount of data that helps them improve the design to make the rocket — the most powerful ever to have flown — safer and more reliable.
SpaceX will be livestreaming the sixth flight test. Here’s how to watch it.