These are key differences between the fifth and sixth Starship launch
SpaceX launched Starship on its fifth test flight last month. Now, the most powerful rocket ever built is set to embark today on its sixth test flight from South Texas.
Senior SpaceX adviser Garrett Reisman told CNN’s Boris Sanchez that while this test flight will “be very similar to the last one,” there are some key differences to note.
“The first is that they’re going to light up one of Starship’s engines in space and this is really important, something they haven’t done before because they need to be able to do that to put Starship into orbit and leave it up there for a while,” Reisman said ahead of the launch Tuesday.
“So far, we’ve been lobbing it up there and even today we’re going to lob it up there,” he continued. “And whether or not the engine fires, it’s going to come back down. But in the future, if we want to keep it up there, we need to be able to light the engines and bring it back in a controlled fashion and what SpaceX wants to do is when they catch Starship, just like they catch the booster.”
The SpaceX adviser went on to call President-elect Donald Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s close relationship “certainly unique.”
“I think this is the advantage that Elon was clearly hoping to obtain when he went all in supporting the candidacy for Donald Trump.”
No comments: