As of April 20, 2023, with its first flight test, Starship (Space X’s most advanced rocket) became the largest, tallest and most powerful vehicle ever used. And now Elon Musk’s company has announced that This ship will undertake its seventh flight next week, if everything goes according to plan.
The seventh flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Monday, January 13. Teams at Starbase are keeping an eye on weather conditions for preflight operations → https://t.co/QNCSPTdYW2pic.twitter.com/UITKY0C2MI
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 8, 2025
The flight is scheduled for Monday, January 13 and will be another test for the 122-meter, fully reusable megarocket, designed to help humanity colonize the Moon and Mars.
It is planned that Starship takes off on Monday at 9:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time from Starbase, the SpaceX manufacturing and launch site in south Texas. You will be able to see the action live; The company will broadcast the flight over the Internet, which will begin about 35 minutes before takeoff.
Starship has flown six times to date: twice in 2023 and in March, June, October and November of last year. The October mission included an unprecedented capture of the Starship Super Heavy booster by Starbase launch towera feat that SpaceX will try to repeat on Flight 7. That was the plan for Flight 6 in November as well, but a communication problem with the tower thwarted a capture attempt on that mission.
Starship’s 50-meter upper stage, known as Starship or simply Ship, will descend for a gentle splashdown in the Indian Ocean on Mondayas he did in his last three releases.
SpaceX will also try to break new ground in the next mission. For example, for the first time, Ship will try to deploy payloads in space: 10 simulated satellites, “similar in size and weight to next generation Starlink satellitesas the first exercise of a satellite deployment mission – says SpaceX in a statement -. “The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean.”
Super Heavy too will carry reused hardware for the first time on Flight 7– A booster Raptor engine launched and returned on Starship’s fifth flight test.