SpaceX is gearing up for another milestone as it prepares to test the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, following its recent achievement of a precision landing of a massive rocket booster.
The upcoming test will include an ambitious maneuver to guide the rocket’s booster back into the mechanical arms of a launch tower, a system SpaceX has dubbed “chopsticks.”
Standing nearly 400 feet tall (121 meters), the two-stage rocket—comprising the Starship spacecraft atop the Super Heavy booster—is scheduled to launch from SpaceX’s Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas. The liftoff is planned for November 19 during a 30-minute window starting at 5 p.m. ET, with SpaceX live-streaming the event on its X account. However, the timeline may be subject to change.
The test flight is expected to draw notable attendees, including US President-elect Donald Trump, who will join SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The event highlights Musk’s increasing proximity to the president-elect’s circle.
NASA envisions using the Starship spacecraft as a lunar lander, aiming to send astronauts to the moon by 2026. These test flights are vital for refining SpaceX’s goal of recovering and reusing Super Heavy boosters and Starship spacecraft rapidly. Achieving such reusability is considered critical to reducing the cost and time required to transport cargo or passengers to space.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), responsible for licensing commercial rocket launches, has approved this test flight without requiring an extensive review of license changes. This decision is based on the flight path being nearly identical to a previous test....Read Full Article [Click Here>]
“The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, and other licensing requirements for the suborbital test flight,” the agency stated. “The FAA determined the changes requested by SpaceX for [Tuesday’s test flight] are within the scope of what has been previously analyzed.”
During its fifth integrated test flight on October 13, SpaceX successfully demonstrated a bold maneuver, guiding the 232-foot-tall (71-meter) Super Heavy booster back to its landing structure. The booster was caught midair by the “chopsticks.”
“Starship’s fifth flight test was a seminal moment in iterating towards a fully and rapidly reusable launch system,” SpaceX said in a statement.
This upcoming test represents another significant step in SpaceX’s mission to revolutionize space travel.
