SpaceX is gearing up for the sixth test flight of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket. Elon Musk’s company follows a “fail fast, learn fast” approach to research and development, which resembles the culture of Silicon Valley more than the aerospace industry, with an acceleration in the pace of launches. It seems so.

When is the next flight?

SpaceX states on the website that Starship is scheduled to conduct its sixth test flight on November 19th, with launch slots opening at 4pm Central Time (10pm UK). A live stream of the launch will be available. SpaceX’s X account on the social media platform also owned by Musk, can be viewed here at newscientist.com

It took SpaceX 18 months to complete Starship’s first five test flights, with the fifth happening in mid-October. With the launch of its sixth flight next week, it will be just over a month since the last flight, making it the fastest flight yet.

What will SpaceX attempt with Flight 6?

Flight 6 mirrors Flight 5 in many ways but with some significant differences.

The booster stage will once again try a “chopstick” landing, catching and securing the vehicle as it returns to the launch pad for a soft landing. This methodology aims to eventually enable boosters to be reused multiple times, significantly reducing the cost of launching payloads into orbit.

The upper stage will enter space, complete a partial orbit, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, and splash-land in the Indian Ocean. In this flight, the upper stage will attempt to reignite one of the Raptor engines in space to gather valuable operational data. Also, new heat shield designs will be tested during atmospheric reentry.

One notable change in this flight is that the landing of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean will be filmed during the day as the launch occurs later in the day. This will provide detailed images as previous landings happened at night, limiting the visibility for engineers compared to daytime landings.

What occurred in previous Starship launches?

During the first test flight on April 20, 2023, three out of the 33 engines in the booster stage failed to ignite. This led to the rocket becoming uncontrollable and self-destructing.

In the second test flight on November 18, 2023, the flight proceeded further, with the booster and upper stage separating as planned. However, the booster stage exploded before reaching the ground, and the upper stage self-destructed before reaching space.

Test Flight 3 on March 14, 2024, was at least partially successful as the upper stage reached space, but it did not return to Earth unscathed.

The subsequent flight on June 6 saw the upper stage reach an altitude of over 200 kilometers and fly at speeds exceeding 27,000 kilometers per hour. Both the booster and upper stage completed a soft landing at sea.

Test Flight 5 was the most ambitious yet, with Starship’s super-heavy booster touching down on the launch pad and being safely caught by “chopsticks” on SpaceX’s launch tower, known as Mechazilla. This innovative landing approach aims to secure and lower the booster for reuse.