SpaceX has moved on to prepare for the sixth test flight of Starship just a few days after the immensely successful flight 5. On October 13, it caught the 400-feet-tall rocket’s Super Heavy Booster using the ‘Mechazilla’ tower, creating history in the very first attempt.
Fast forward a week, SpaceX rolled out another Booster to conduct tests for the sixth mission.
Flight 6 Super Heavy booster moved to the Starbase pad for testing. The move comes just one week after returning the first booster caught following launch pic.twitter.com/iwmqCeF3tE
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 22, 2024
“Flight 6 Super Heavy booster moved to the Starbase pad for testing. The move comes just one week after returning the first booster caught following launch,” SpaceX shared on X.
The 232-feet-tall, as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says is the largest flying object with an incredible thrust capacity of 7,590 tonne-force thanks to the 33 Raptor engines. It is topped with a second stage Starship which stands 165 feet tall and is equipped with six engines.
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Musk has said that the rocket will further lengthen in the future. “10 years from now, there will probably be a much wider diameter Starship too,” he wrote on X.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
Both the stage of the rocket are designed to be reusable but only the Booster has been recovered just once.
While the objectives of flight 6 have not been outlined yet, it would be a catch of the booster again using the tower and smoother atmospheric reentry of the second stage. We also don’t know when the rocket might lift off again.
Earlier this month, Musk said that SpaceX will attempt to catch the upper stage Ship too using the tower early next year. Notably, Musk has aimed to launch five Starship flights to Mars by 2026 and every progress is crucial for achieving it.
ALSO SEE: Five Starship Launches In Two Years! Elon Musk Shares Plan For Colonising Mars
(Image: SpaceX)
