Watch the 8th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket
The eighth orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket is scheduled to occur today, with a 60-minute launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central). I have embedded below the Space Affairs live stream feed, as SpaceX’s X feed won’t be active until about 40 minutes before launch.
This flight has the same essential flight plan as the seventh flight, mainly because the prototype Starship on that previous flight was lost before it could achieve any of its goals. After Superheavy separates and attempts a chopstick landing at Boca Chica, Starship will go into a low orbit that will bring it down over the Indian Ocean. During the coast phase it will attempt to deploy four dummy Starlink satellites to test its deployment equipment, as well as do a Raptor-2 engine restart to demonstrate this works in order to prepare for a full orbit flight on a future test flight, possibly as soon as the next test flight.
Starship will also be testing a new configuration of thermal protection during its return, including leaving some places on its hull with no protection to see how those locations fare.
To paraphrase Elon Musk, prepare for excitment.
The eighth orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy rocket is scheduled to occur today, with a 60-minute launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central). I have embedded below the Space Affairs live stream feed, as SpaceX’s X feed won’t be active until about 40 minutes before launch.
This flight has the same essential flight plan as the seventh flight, mainly because the prototype Starship on that previous flight was lost before it could achieve any of its goals. After Superheavy separates and attempts a chopstick landing at Boca Chica, Starship will go into a low orbit that will bring it down over the Indian Ocean. During the coast phase it will attempt to deploy four dummy Starlink satellites to test its deployment equipment, as well as do a Raptor-2 engine restart to demonstrate this works in order to prepare for a full orbit flight on a future test flight, possibly as soon as the next test flight.
Starship will also be testing a new configuration of thermal protection during its return, including leaving some places on its hull with no protection to see how those locations fare.
To paraphrase Elon Musk, prepare for excitment.