SpaceX has announced plans for another launch attempt next week of the Starship rocket, a crucial element in Elon Musk’s ambitious goal of colonizing Mars. This comes after two unsuccessful test flights earlier this year resulted in explosions during flight.
The ninth test flight of Starship is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, May 27, with the launch window opening at 6:30 pm (2330 GMT) from the company’s base in Texas.
Previous test flights of the world’s largest rocket ended in failure, with the upper stage of the rocket being lost in both instances. However, the Super Heavy Booster was successfully caught by the launch tower’s mechanical “chopstick” arms.
Despite setbacks, Starship has completed eight integrated test flights, with a mix of successes and failures. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had grounded SpaceX flights but recently authorized the resumption of activities with modifications to the rocket.
For the upcoming flight, SpaceX will reuse a recovered Super Heavy booster for the first time, conducting flight experiments before a “hard splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico.
Standing at 403 feet tall, Starship is designed to be fully reusable. SpaceX plans to launch multiple prototypes to address any issues quickly, a strategy that has faced criticism.
In response to environmental concerns, the FAA authorized an increase in the number of annual Starship rocket launches at SpaceX’s Texas base.
