Thursday, March 28, 2024

SpaceX Continues to Prep for Starship's Fourth Flight Test...

SpaceX's Ship 29 sits on its suborbital launch pad at Starbase in Texas...as of March 22, 2024.
SpaceX

With Integrated Flight Test (IFT)-4 targeted for a potential launch this May, SpaceX has been moving full steam ahead in testing the next vehicle to fly—Ship 29—at Starbase in Texas during this week.

Last Monday, Ship 29 successfully fired all six of its Raptor 2 engines at Starbase's suborbital launch pad. And yesterday, the vehicle flawlessly ignited a single Raptor 2 engine during its static fire as SpaceX is planning to conduct an in-space firing of a Raptor 2 during IFT-4...an objective that wasn't met during IFT-3 two weeks ago.

Just like the three previous Starship Super Heavy launches, this flight hinges on how soon the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will grant approval to conduct the next demonstration. Considering the fact that IFT-3 was enormously successful despite Booster 10 and Ship 28 not reaching their ocean splashdown zones intact at the end of their orbital demo, the so-called mishap investigation by the FAA should not take as long as the ones for the two previous integrated flight tests.


Posted by Richard Par at 10:57 AM
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