SpaceX rolls out the next Superheavy for sixth test orbital launch
SpaceX in a tweet on October 22, 2024 announced the roll out to the launch tower of the next Superheavy to be used in the sixth orbital test flight, only nine days after that launch tower had successfully caught a Superheavy at the end of the fifth orbital test flight.
Though no launch date has been announced, the company is clearly wants to do it soon. Though its present launch license allows it go when ready, it remains unclear whether it will get that approval from the FAA when requested. FAA upper management has repeatedly indicated a desire to delay its approvals to SpaceX, and until there is a change in the White House — thus forcing a change in that FAA upper management — there is no reason to expect the agency to change its behavior.
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SpaceX in a tweet on October 22, 2024 announced the roll out to the launch tower of the next Superheavy to be used in the sixth orbital test flight, only nine days after that launch tower had successfully caught a Superheavy at the end of the fifth orbital test flight.
Though no launch date has been announced, the company is clearly wants to do it soon. Though its present launch license allows it go when ready, it remains unclear whether it will get that approval from the FAA when requested. FAA upper management has repeatedly indicated a desire to delay its approvals to SpaceX, and until there is a change in the White House — thus forcing a change in that FAA upper management — there is no reason to expect the agency to change its behavior.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Please allow me to repeat my question on a more appropriate post:
So when is a titanium Starship coming? Compare stainless steel Foxbat to titanium SR-71.
Felix on Tuesday’s What About It podcast said SpaceX is targeting an IFT-6 launch on Veteran’s Day, Nov. 11 though there has been no announcement confirming this yet from SpaceX – or at least none of which I am aware as of this writing. If SpaceX can launch IFT-6 by mid-November, it could – FAA permitting – likely launch IFT-7 in December.
If, as seems increasingly likely, Trump is President-elect by the time IFT-6 launches, one hopes the political hacks at the FAA will prioritize resume polishing over a pointless dead-ender last stand against SpaceX. But by that time, the worst they could do would be to delay IFT-7 from December to January.
@Ray – Titanium is a more expensive and less plentiful material to obtain, and it is significantly more difficult to machine and form than the very cooperative stainless steel SpaceX uses. All of Starship’s current development path involves the very familiar properties of that steel, and switching to titanium would require replacing all of that knowledge (and likely a lot of tooling) with an entirely new research and development process to prove out that build. While titanium is lighter for a comparative strength and performance, the vast majority of the launch weight is from the fuel itself, and there is a sort of economy of scale in just making a bigger rocket of the same material to offset that structure/fuel ratio even more. There gets to be a point where a possibly better-performing material just can’t make things cheaper in a mass-production setting. The SR-71 and its variants were truly great, but we only ever made a few dozen of them, while 1,700 MiG-25 and MiG-31s were built.
Now, using titanium for certain key components like the grid fins is a whole different story, should happen soon now that they are actually recovering the boosters.
Yess, Matt the cost and manufacturability of titanium are very real challenges. But in addition to less weight and greater strength there is also higher resistance to heating, which might lead to dramatic payload increases by eliminating heat shielding or substantially reducing it, in addition to the other savings.
Imagine a tanker that could fill a Starship in (say) five loads instead of ten! The cumulative effects of having a Superheavy, a Tanker, and an HLS/ITS, all with a greater payload fraction might be dramatic.
Is that at all possible? I don’t know if the trade studies have been done, but if anyone could tackle a whole new design and manufacturing process, it would be SpaceX!
The real question is would there be time? Without setting back progress for (say) 10 years, I doubt it would work. But perhaps someone will take the longshot opportunity, and start defining the second generation in spacecraft now?!
RVD asks: “So when is a titanium Starship coming? Compare stainless steel Foxbat to titanium SR-71.”
One comparison would be in the number of airframes built. 1,186 Foxbats v 32 SR-71 / A-12. This betting man goes with Foxbat. Cheers –
I agree with Matt that titanium is much more expensive and difficult to use. Machining titanium isn’t that much worse than stainless steel, but welding might prove to be a challenge.
But more to the point, I would question whether the titanium industry is even able to provide titanium sheet and plate in sufficient quantities to satisfy SpaceX’s appetite. Or whether SpaceX could live with the notoriously long lead times of the titanium industry.
Even the SR-71’s had to discreetly import titanium from the USSR due to insufficient domestic titanium capacity.