The date of the next flight of Starship, which is about to achieve a new feat, has been confirmed

SpaceX doesn’t want to miss the push of the historic fifth test flight Starshipand has already announced the date for the sixth release. Elon Musk’s company said the ship is powered by a giant rocket Super Heavy will take off again Monday, November 18.

The launch window will open at 16:00 US Central Time (23:00 Spain) and will last 30 minutes. If technical problems or adverse weather occur, the Starship’s takeoff will be rescheduled to a date to be determined, as is customary.

According to SpaceX, the goal of Starship’s next flight is to expand on the knowledge gained since the last test in mid-October. It is worth saying that the aerospace company has set itself very important tasks and is going to a new feat.

First of all, we will search again capture a super-heavy rocket during its descent using the Mehazilla tower. The success of the first attempt allowed SpaceX engineers to gather very valuable information to make modifications to both the vehicle’s hardware and hardware. amplifier as is the software that is used to control it.

But the good news about Starship’s sixth launch is that it will restart one of the Raptor’s six engines when I’m still in space. Something much more important than one might think, especially when looking to the future. This is because the presence of this capability, as well as its correct and reliable operation, is necessary for the ship to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner.

SpaceX says goodbye to first-generation Starship

Regardless of whether the spacecraft succeeds in firing its engine in space, its trajectory will be very similar to that of its previous flight. This means that the story will end with a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Beyond SpaceX’s goals for the next Starship launch, it won’t be just another flight. The sixth takeoff will be marked farewell to the first generation ship modelsince from next year a new version with several noticeable modifications will begin to be used.

“Future spacecraft, starting with the vehicle planned for the seventh test flight, will have significant improvements, including redesigned forward flaps, larger fuel tanks and the latest generation of secondary thermal protection plates and layers as we continue to move towards a fully reusable spacecraft . heat shield,” explained Musk’s company.

SpaceX’s achievements with Starship are critical not only to the company’s future and its ultimate goal of landing humans on Mars, but also to NASA’s Artemis program. Let’s not forget that the mission Artemis IIIwhich will take astronauts back to the Moon in September 2026, depends on Starship-based lunar lander.

However, there are still many problems to be solved. The most important thing: demonstrate that a module developed based on Starship can safely refuel multiple times in space before welcoming crew members who will take off on the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, and then continue on to the Moon on a SpaceX ship.