SpaceX to perform first-ever re-light of Starship Raptor engine next week

imeng.vip:03月-10日 Starship on the launch pad.

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket didn’t quite reach orbit on its second attempt in November last year.

It did get closer than the rocket’s explosive first attempt in April, though. This was thanks to several design changes, including a vented interstage that allowed for a hot-staging separation.

Now, SpaceX has made a series of changes to its latest Starship prototype, hoping it will reach orbit on its next attempt – tentatively scheduled for April 14.

If SpaceX gets its way, flight test 3 will be the first of many Starship launches this year.

SpaceX aims to perform first Raptor engine re-light
SpaceX famously employs a “fail fast, learn fast” mantra. Elon Musk’s space company has developed several prototypes to perform a series of flight tests in quick succession. This will allow it to quickly iterate upon and improve Starship’s design based on data from previous launches.

The hope is that flight test 3, or IFT-3, will fly higher, allowing the rocket’s upper stage to insert itself into orbit.

For the upcoming launch, SpaceX will employ the Starship upper stage prototype, Ship 28, and the Super Heavy first stage booster prototype, Booster 10.

In a mission description for the upcoming flight test, SpaceX describes some of its ambitious goals for the Starship upper stage.

These include “opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space and a controlled reentry of Starship.”

SpaceX recently performed a countdown rehearsal with Starship on the launch pad. Source: SpaceX / X
Also, Starship “will also fly a new trajectory, with Starship targeted to splash down in the Indian Ocean,” the company explained. “This new flight path enables us to attempt new techniques like in-space engine burns while maximizing public safety.”

During Starship’s second flight test in November, the upper stage exploded approximately eight minutes after launch as it performed a liquid oxygen venting. Elon Musk later pointed out that the venting wouldn’t have been necessary during an operational flight, meaning the upper stage would likely have reached orbit if it carried a payload.

“We normally wouldn’t have that liquid oxygen if we had a payload,” Musk said during a company update posted on X on January 12. “So, ironically, if it had had a payload, it would have reached orbit.”

In its mission description, SpaceX notes that Starship’s second flight test provided “invaluable data to continue rapidly developing Starship.”

Starship: The world’s most powerful rocket
SpaceX designed Starship to send humans to Mars eventually. The massive rocket, which stands nearly 400 feet (122 meters) tall, will be fully reusable when operational. This will dramatically reduce the cost of successive launches, making human spaceflight to Mars economically feasible.

Starship is the world’s most powerful rocket. The 33 Raptor engines on Super Heavy power produce 17 million lbs of thrust at liftoff.

ImageAnother view of Starship at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas. Source: SpaceX / X
The hulking rocket could fly again next Thursday, March 14, though there is no confirmation that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared the launch. According to SpaceX, the target date is “pending regulatory approval”.

That said, Kelvin Coleman, the administrator for Commercial Space Transportation at the FAA, recently stated that the government agency is collaborating with SpaceX to help it increase Starship’s launch cadence.

According to Coleman, SpaceX would like to launch Starship as many as nine times this year, meaning flight test 3 could be swiftly followed by more launches of the massive Mars rocket.