Starship is scheduled to launch from Starbase on Monday (Jan. 13) at 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). It will be the seventh test flight for the giant rocket, which SpaceX is developing to help humanity settle Mars and achieve a variety of other exploration feats.
SpaceX is also flying rudimentary catch fittings on Starship to test their thermal performance on reentry. The ship will fly a more demanding trajectory during descent to probe the structural limits of the redesigned flaps at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX's Starship will fly for the seventh time ever early next week, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX announced today (Jan. 8) that it's targeting Monday (Jan. 13) for Flight 7 of Starship, the 400-foot-tall (122 meters), fully reusable megarocket designed to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.
The direct-to-cell Starlink system in Southern California will deliver wireless emergency alerts and power SMS texting to 911 services.
SpaceX has quickly become something of a taxi service for space travel, allowing private companies and governments alike to affordably send satellites into orbit for research and commercial purposes. The frequent launches have reportedly become something of a nightmare for those who live near the launch sites, however.
On Friday, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites is set to take off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
A Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base tonight at 10:52 p.m. EST (7:52 p.m. local California time; 0352 GMT on Jan. 11) on the NROL-153 mission for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). SpaceX will webcast the action live via its X account, with coverage beginning about 10 minutes before launch.
SpaceX completed its first launch from Kennedy Space Center for the year on Wednesday morning. A Falcon 9 carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off at 10:27 a.m. Eastern time from KSC's Launch Pad 39-A.
The launch will take place at 10:27 a.m. at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, where a Falcon 9 rocket will carry the satellites into space.
The Space Coast is in for a possible double-header. Hours after New Glenn launches on its first flight, SpaceX plans to launch a Falcon 9.