Trevor Mahlmann
SpaceX may launch its third full-scale starship prototype – called the serial number 10 or SN10 – as early as Wednesday in South Texas.
With this vehicle, the company will seek to successfully land the Starship vehicle where the last two versions, SN8 and SN9, failed in the final seconds of the mission to stabilize for a controlled landing. Both flights ended in a fire at the landing site. SpaceX founder and chief engineer, Elon Musk, estimated about a 60 percent chance of success this time around – suggesting that the probability is slightly higher than that, given his tendency to set expectations.
Similar to the two previous flights, which took place in December and early February, SpaceX will launch its Starship vehicle at an altitude of about 10 km under the power of three Raptor engines. There, it will switch from its main propellant tanks to the smaller ones near the top of the vehicle and perform a “belly down” maneuver, reorienting itself to simulate the return of the orbit. This allows the starship to drain speed and also ensure its reuse without a massive heat shield.
The challenge will be to successfully reignite two of the three Raptor engines close to the ground to slow the vehicle down and make a controlled landing. There will be guaranteed entertainment, anyway.
SpaceX has already received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for this launch, and the window opens at 9:00 am (3:00 pm UTC), local time in South Texas. As always, preparatory activities are likely to delay testing further in the window and there may be unplanned retentions or the need to empty the tank and refill as part of the test program. But the weather looks great, with clear, sunny skies in southern Texas.
The test comes a day after Yusaku Maezawa announces an update to the “dearMoon” mission he bought on the starship. This flight will send the Japanese billionaire and about 10 other people on a trip to the Moon, and back, for a week-long mission on the starship. This is expected to be the first human flight beyond Earth’s low orbit in the vehicle and should go further from Earth than any previous human mission.
Maezawa said he was holding an online competition to “join the team” and welcomed the people who signed up. He will choose “talented” and “creative” people who want to inspire others about space, share the journey with those on Earth and who want to be good crew members.
The video announcement included some comments from Musk about Starship’s readiness for a mission that could be launched as early as 2023. “I am highly confident that we will have reached orbit many times with the Starship before 2023, and that it will be safe enough for human transport in 2023, “said Musk. “It looks very promising.”
We’re not sure about the 2023 date, but it looks like fun. Maezawa admitted he was a little nervous about the flight, but said he was more curious to find out what’s out there. None of this will happen, of course, until SpaceX takes the starship into orbit and back dozens of times. The iterative steps towards that goal will continue with Wednesday’s flight test.
The flight video will be embedded below when the SpaceX webcast is live.