*HTML is ON *UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
[b]Starship's Twelfth Flight Test[/b] The twelfth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Thursday, May 21. The launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. CT. A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 45 minutes before liftoff. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change. The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase. The flight test's primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test. The booster's primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch. The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship's heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship's heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. All of the deployed payloads will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned. For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle's rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
If you have previously registered, but forgotten your password, click here.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright collectSPACE. All rights reserved.