The Super Heavy is on fire again.
SpaceX is Super Heavy Starship’s next Integrated Flight Test (IFT) is scheduled for within the next few weeks, following the launch of its booster yesterday (July 15). IFT-5 will be the fifth launch of a fully-equipped Starship vehicle and its most ambitious launch yet.
This spaceship is National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) As a lunar lander Artemis 3 Mission and the CEO of SpaceX also praised it. Elon Musk Eventually, we will be able to make humans fly. Mars .
The 233-foot (71-meter) booster was delivered to the launch pad at SpaceX’s test site on July 9 ahead of a full-duration “static test fire” that took place yesterday at the company’s StarBase facility in Texas. Video filmed and released by SpaceX showed the rocket’s 33 Raptor engines firing at full power for about 20 seconds with Super Heavy strapped to the pad. post About X.
SpaceX’s Super Heavy booster ignited 33 Raptor engines during a static test firing on July 15, 2024. (Image courtesy of SpaceX)
Each of Starship’s four test flights has gone farther and achieved more than its predecessor, with the most recent launch in June being hailed as a complete success. Starship and its Super Heavy booster return The controlled ocean splashdown went as planned, and now SpaceX is looking to build on that success. Try Starship’s fifth flight will reach even further.
Related: SpaceX moves Starship Super Heavy booster to launch pad ahead of fifth test flight (video, photos)
Starship It’s designed to be a fully reusable system. Like the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster, Super Heavy is designed with grid fins for controlled re-entry, but unlike SpaceX’s current workhorse, once Super Heavy lands, it will fly straight back to the launch pad it came from.
Features of the Starship Launch Tower Two giant “chopstick” arms Designed to catch the Super Heavy on its grid fins, the device stops the booster’s momentum, causing it to momentarily halt in mid-air and succumb to the gentle embrace of the chopsticks. A rapid refit then sees the booster already in the position it needs to be to launch again.
For the fourth flight, Super Heavy’s ocean landing was far from its launch pad at Starbase, Texas, but SpaceX closed the launch tower’s chopstick arms in time for the booster to splash down, likely to test the system’s timing and functionality. Now they’re going to try it for real. Following the success of IFT-4, Musk said, I have written In response to a video of an animated Super Heavy Booster catch, X posted, “I’ll be trying this out in late July!”
As for whether the next Starship launch will take place on July 5, Musk said:Four weeks ” X said in a post. That timeline would put the launch around August 2, but the rocket billionaire’s estimates are often optimistic, so the earliest we could see Starship IFT-5 launch is early August.
