SpaceX Plans Fifth Starship Test Flight in July

TapTechNews June 17th news, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk disclosed that the company plans to conduct the fifth full Starship launch vehicle test flight at the end of July. Earlier this month, Starship underwent its fourth test flight and achieved a huge success, with both the booster and the spaceship achieving their intended test goals for the first time. Due to the complexity brought by the 33 Raptor engines, the booster had brought a lot of troubles to SpaceX in previous tests.

In the fourth test flight, the rocket successfully soft-landed in the Atlantic Ocean. After the test, Musk quickly stated that the next test will attempt the plan of using the launch tower to catch the rocket, and currently, it seems that SpaceX will stick to this decision.

TapTechNews noticed that SpaceX's recovery method for Starship is different from that of its Falcon 9 rocket. Unlike Falcon 9, the second-stage booster of Starship is also fully reusable. The Falcon booster will land on unmanned ships or on land, but the Super Heavy booster of Starship has no landing legs, and SpaceX plans to 'catch' the rocket with the launch tower, which is crucial for the company's plan to achieve the rapid reuse of Starship.

Before the fourth test flight (IFT-4) of Starship, SpaceX had not yet conducted a controlled landing of Starship. However, as the rocket successfully soft-landed in the fourth test flight, the company seems to be fully advancing to the next stage of Starship testing. This will involve attempting to catch the rocket with the tower, and Musk said in the latest comment that the goal is to conduct this attempt at the end of July.

One of the biggest obstacles restricting SpaceX from quickly conducting Starship tests is obtaining approval from regulatory authorities. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to approve each launch one by one, but now it seems that if SpaceX uses the same flight and other test characteristics, this approval process may be accelerated.

Before conducting the tower capture, Starship will first test all its systems in a position close to the tower. Due to the high risk of possibly damaging or destroying the tower, the capture operation is very risky.

Another problem facing Starship is the heat shield. SpaceX tested a special adhesive in the fourth test flight for bonding the heat insulation tiles on the second-stage booster. The heat shield of the spaceship's second-stage booster is composed of thousands of tiles, which often fall off during the launch process or even when on the ground.

Before the fifth test flight, SpaceX will replace all the heat insulation tiles for the spaceship designated for this test. Video clips reported by local media from Texas also show that SpaceX is building a second tower in Boca Chica.