SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said Monday that the company hopes to make the seventh flight of its Starship launch vehicle on Jan. 10.
What Happened: “Tenth,” Musk wrote on social media platform X. The billionaire CEO responded to a question about when SpaceX plans to conduct the seventh test flight of its Starship launcher.
The Starship is still in progress and testing. While NASA hopes to bring humans to the surface of the Moon after a hole of more than 50 years with a custom edition of the spacecraft, Musk dreams of taking humans to the planet Mars aboard the spacecraft.
The last time humans set foot on the Moon was in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.
Starship is lately in development. The company has so far conducted six test flights of the vehicle, starting in April 2023, but without a payload. The last flight control took place in November.
Why it matters: Earlier this month, Musk said the edition of the Starship spacecraft planned for the launch vehicle’s seventh flight features “major” design improvements.
“Lighter, manufacturing and less susceptible to maximum temperatures,” Musk said in an article in X about the new edition of the spacecraft.
For the next flight test, SpaceX will land the Starship spacecraft back in the ocean.
“We will make some other landing in the sea of shipping. If all goes well, SpaceX will try to capture the shipment with the tower (Starbase launch tower),” Musk said previously.
Recovering the vehicle and spacecraft booster at the Starbase launch tower is a demonstration of vehicle reusability.
SpaceX is looking to make its rockets reusable for spaceflight.
In July 2023, Musk warned that rocket manufacturers will need to go all-in on reusability or risk being uncompetitive.
“Rockets are no different from other transportation technologies, they are just harder to make reusable. No one would buy a single-use airplane, car, or even bicycle! We would have to tow a car just for the return trip. ” “Musk said.
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Photo courtesy: SpaceX
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