Elon Musk’s spaceflight and exploration company SpaceX is moving fast ahead for the Starship Flight 6 launch and landing test.
SpaceX moved its Flight 6 Super Heavy rocket booster to the launch site yesterday and mounted it on the Orbital Launch Mount (OLM) by the evening. The company shared the update via its official X (Twitter) account with some stunning imagery of the space launch rocket being moved to the Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas.
The prototypes of Super Heavy Booster 13 (1st stage) and the 2nd stage Ship 31 are collectively called Flight 6 Starship. Since the upcoming launch test will be the sixth launch of a Starship into space, it is called Flight 6 in short.
SpaceX announced the movement of the Flight 6 rocket booster to the Starbase launch site on X:
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.
This X post created a bit of confusion among the Starship enthusiasts. Many people thought that the Flight 6 launch was now imminent and it was going to happen within a week or two. However, SpaceX clearly mentioned that the Flight 6 booster was taken to the launch site for testing.
Booster 13 (Flight 6 rocket) is due for a static fire test. Before mounting the second stage Ship 31 on this booster, SpaceX might also perform a cryogenic pressure-proof test (cryo test) on it. This will ensure the booster’s integrity before the final launch day flight.
Even if the final tests are performed on both Ship 31 and Booster 13 (Flight 6 vehicles), SpaceX will need to obtain the final FAA license before the next launch and landing test. Flight 5 was delayed for several weeks because of the unavailability of the FAA approval for environmental and safety reasons.
However, the FAA license for Flight 6 should be expected earlier this time. The main reason for the delay of the Flight 5 license was the landing catch by launch tower Chopsticks arms. No rocket booster was ever caught on landing before SpaceX caught Flight 5 Super Heavy in the history of spaceflight and the FAA had its concerns regarding the catch and safety of the surrounding areas and human lives. As the booster catch mechanism normalizes, SpaceX should be getting licenses quicker compared to Flight 5.
It will be interesting to see what tests SpaceX performs on Flight 6 Super Heavy in the coming days. Stay tuned for updates.
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