SpaceX is scheduled to launch the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday, as the company looks to advance work on the giant vehicle, including with a key satellite deployment test.
The company has an hourly window, from 5 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET, to launch Starship from its private “Starbase” near Brownsville, Texas. If SpaceX is unable to launch within this window due to weather or technical issues, the company will reschedule the test to a later date.
There will be no people on board the Starship. However, Elon Muskthe company is using 10 “Starlink simulators” in the rocket's payload bay and plans to attempt to deploy satellite-like objects once they are in space. This is a key test of the rocket's capabilitiesbecause SpaceX needs Starship to deploy the much larger and heavier upcoming generation of Starlink satellites.
Although SpaceX did not specify what Starlink simulators are made of, mass simulators are commonly used in the development of rocket vehicles and are often simple structures of metal or concrete that weigh about the same as the object in question. Because the rocket does not reach orbit, the simulators are expected to follow a similar trajectory to the rocket and are expected to burn during re-entry.
Assuming the launch goes as planned, Starship will reach space and then orbit the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and crashing into the Indian Ocean about an hour after liftoff.
Additionally, the Super Heavy rocket's booster would return after separating from Starship and land on the arms of the company's launch tower – a feat the company managed to accomplish fifth flight But he missed the sixth.
A Starship rocket sits on the launch pad during severe weather on Jan. 14, 2025, near Boca Chica, Texas.
Sergio Flores | Af | Getty Images
As with each previous flight, SpaceX aims to continue developing the spacecraft by evaluating additional capabilities of the spacecraft, including tests of the heat shield plates and its high-intensity re-entry trajectory.
The spacecraft is crucial to the company's plans, even for her Valued at $350 billion and already a dominant position in the space industry.
Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. Completely stacked on a super-heavy booster, Starship is 397 feet tall and approximately 30 feet in diameter. Since April 2023, SpaceX has deployed the entire Starship rocket system on six spaceflight tests, with increasing frequency.
The 232-foot-tall super-heavy booster begins the rocket's journey into space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines that collectively produce 16.7 million pounds of thrust – about twice the thrust of the 8.8 million-pound thrust of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which first launched in 2022.
The spacecraft itself, measuring 55 feet tall, has six Raptor engines — three for use in Earth's atmosphere and three for operation in the vacuum of space.
The rocket is powered by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. It takes over 10 million pounds of fuel to launch the entire system
TOPSHOT – A SpaceX spacecraft lifted off from Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on November 19, 2024, for the Starship Flight 6 test.
Chandan Khanna | Af | Getty Images
The spacecraft flying during this launch, designated Ship 33, also represents a second-generation version of the vehicle, called “Block 2.”
SpaceX noted that “significant improvements” to the vehicle include changes to the flaps on the front of the vehicle, a redesign of the propulsion system to increase efficiency, an improved on-board computer, 30 cameras placed along the vehicle to monitor the rocket, and a strengthened heat shield.
The Starship system is designed to be reusable and is intended to become a new method of transporting cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also crucial to NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon. SpaceX has won a multibillion-dollar contract from the agency to use Starship as a crewed lunar lander for NASA's Artemis lunar program.
