The upcoming Starship from SpaceX is fully prepared for its launch.
On Friday (Jan. 10), SpaceX successfully assembled its Starship vehicle atop a massive Super Heavy booster in anticipation of the next launch of the world’s largest rocket scheduled for the following week. Liftoff is anticipated at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Monday (Jan. 13) from SpaceX’s Starbase testing facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas.
“Flight 7 Starship and Super Heavy positioned on the launch pad at Starbase,” SpaceX announced in a post on the social platform X on Friday.
The Starship Flight 7 mission will evaluate a new iteration of Starship and represents the first of potentially 25 launches scheduled for this year. With the Starship upper-stage module stacked on its Super Heavy booster, the overall rocket measures nearly 400 feet (122 meters) in height, establishing it as the tallest and most powerful launch apparatus on the planet.
As indicated by its name, Flight 7 will signify SpaceX’s seventh test flight of Starship, built to function as a completely reusable launch platform for missions targeting Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. NASA has designated Starship to deliver its Artemis 3 astronauts to the lunar surface in 2027, while SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, aims to send an uncrewed version of Starship to Mars as soon as 2026.
During the Jan. 13 test, SpaceX plans to assess a variety of enhancements to the Starship vehicle, such as improvements to its flight computer, avionics, and thermal protection system. Additionally, the spacecraft is set to carry a series of simulated Starlink internet satellites, which SpaceX intends to deploy in space during the 66-minute journey.
The Starship unit for Flight 7 features smaller forward flaps that have been repositioned away from its heat shield to decrease exposure to excessive heat during reentry, as noted by SpaceX in their mission description. SpaceX is also reusing an engine on the rocket’s 33-engine Super Heavy first stage for the first time.
“The forthcoming flight test will launch a next-generation vehicle featuring substantial upgrades, attempt Starship’s inaugural payload deployment assessment, conduct multiple reentry experiments aimed at ship retrieval and reuse, and dispatch and recover the Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX noted in the mission overview.
If everything proceeds as planned, the Super Heavy section of the Flight 7 Starship will return to Earth, to be caught by enormous metal “chopstick” arms situated at its launch pad at Starbase. SpaceX successfully showcased such a rocket retrieval in October during its Flight 5 test but opted against a catch attempt a month later during the Flight 6 launch.
SpaceX representatives have indicated they will only move forward with the Flight 7 Super Heavy retrieval if the rocket and its launch tower fulfill specific criteria to guarantee a safe catch. Should those criteria fail to be met, the Super Heavy will default to a soft landing and water splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico, akin to what occurred during Flight 6.
“We maintain a strict stance on ensuring the wellbeing of the public and our personnel, and the return will only occur if conditions are optimal,” SpaceX representatives stated in the mission overview.