Elon Musk’s commercial spaceflight company SpaceX is finalizing preparations for the Starship Flight 6 launch and landing-catch test (IFT-6).
Yesterday, SpaceX shared a few new pictures of the Flight 6 Starship upper stage (Ship 31) from its orbital launch and landing site in Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX stated that it’s moving Ship 31 to the orbital launch mount (OLM) in anticipation of the Starship Flight 6 test targeted for Monday next week.
“Starship moved to the pad at Starbase in advance of our sixth flight test,” SpaceX wrote in an official post on X (Twitter).
Starship: Banana for Scale
These new photos of the Flight 6 Starship are interesting and tell a story if looked at closely. For example, SpaceX published a closeup of the Flight 6 Ship 31 nosecone and forward flaps (Pic 1 above). We can see a meme artwork between the S31 marking and the flap that shows a banana cartoon holding another banana (it’s also possible that this is a large decal).
The ‘banana for scale’ meme is used to express the size of an object by engineers. In this instance, the SpaceX engineering team also depicted the scale of the Starship upper/2nd stage spacecraft in the context of a banana.
The fact that SpaceX painted this meme on Flight 6 Starship makes it even more interesting. At first look, it looks like photo editing but the reflection on the shiny side of the flap on its left confirms it’s actually drawn on the ship.
According to knowyourmeme.com, the banana for scale meme is used for:
“Banana for Scale” is an expression indicating that a banana has been placed in the frame of a photograph to reveal the true-to-life size of another object on display in relative scale.
Flight 6 Ship 31 Moved to the OLM
The 2nd photo in SpaceX’s post shows the Flight 6 Starship moved out of the High Bay at Starbase and put on the transport stand (Pic 2 below). This picture shows the massiveness of the Starship upper stage as it leaves the High Bay.
SpaceX moved the Flight 6 Super Heavy (Booster 13) to Starbase for testing last month. A static fire test was performed on this booster in the following days. Both the 1st and 2nd stage vehicles of the Flight 6 Starship are ready for the launch and landing-catch test on Monday next week.
During the last week, SpaceX has also made significant changes to the heat shield TPS (thermal protection system) tiles. This is done to enhance the Flight 6 Starship’s thermal endurance during atmospheric reentry and landing burn engine ignitions.
The 3rd picture of the Starship shows it mounted on the OLM from a distance as the sun sets on Starbase, Texas. Truly an epic view of the SpaceX Boca Chica, launch site.
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