Starship to launch fake satellites on 7th test flight
SpaceX on Friday launched 21 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit with a Falcon 9 rocket whose reusable first stage took part in a record 25th mission.
SpaceX is working to make its satellites less of a nuisance to astronomers by testing out ways to stop Starlink from showing up in images of the cosmos. The company recently lowered the altitude of a batch of its internet satellites to mitigate their brightness as viewed from Earth.
Starship is scheduled to launch from Starbase on Monday (Jan. 13) at 5:00 p.m. EST (2200 GMT). It will be the seventh test flight for the giant rocket, which SpaceX is developing to help humanity settle Mars and achieve a variety of other exploration feats.
SpaceX launched its next batch of Starlink satellites on Friday from Cape Canaveral, with the first-stage of the rocket seeing it 25th flight.
Rough seas caused Blue Origin to hold off a planned early Friday launch attempt with is debut of New Glenn now targeting early Sunday instead. SpaceX, though, still has plans to launch later
SpaceX completed its first launch from Kennedy Space Center for the year on Wednesday morning. A Falcon 9 carrying 21 Starlink satellites lifted off at 10:27 a.m. Eastern time from KSC's Launch Pad 39-A.
SpaceX's Starship will fly for the seventh time ever early next week, if all goes according to plan. SpaceX announced today (Jan. 8) that it's targeting Monday (Jan. 13) for Flight 7 of Starship, the 400-foot-tall (122 meters), fully reusable megarocket designed to help humanity settle the moon and Mars.
SpaceX is also flying rudimentary catch fittings on Starship to test their thermal performance on reentry. The ship will fly a more demanding trajectory during descent to probe the structural limits of the redesigned flaps at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure, according to SpaceX.
SpaceX has quickly become something of a taxi service for space travel, allowing private companies and governments alike to affordably send satellites into orbit for research and commercial purposes. The frequent launches have reportedly become something of a nightmare for those who live near the launch sites, however.
Just after 2:10 p.m., a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 Starlink satellites took off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Watch the launch again: