WASHINGTON (Reuters) – SpaceX, owned by businessman Elon Musk, said on Friday that Starship’s next test flight will feature the rocket’s first attempt to launch payloads into space, releasing ten Starlink satellites, an important demonstration of the spacecraft’s potential. in the satellite launch market.
“While in space, Starship will launch ten Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to the next generation of Starlink satellites, in the first exercise of a satellite launch mission,” SpaceX said on its website.
Starship’s flight from Boca Chica, Texas, tentatively planned for later this month, will be the seventh demonstration of test-to-fail rocket development, when the company tests new improvements with each flight.
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In October, Starship’s “Super Heavy” first-stage booster returned to its launch pad for the first time, a milestone for its fully reusable design.
The sixth test flight of the rocket, in November, was attended by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, and achieved similar objectives, in addition to the landing of the Super Heavy, which had to be made in the water of the Gulf of Mexico due to a problem on the launch pad.
Starship is a centerpiece of SpaceX’s future business for commercial satellite launches, an area the company already dominates with the Falcon 9, which is partially reusable. It is also crucial to Musk’s dreams of colonizing Mars.
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SpaceX has a contract with NASA to leave astronauts on the Moon later this decade, using Starship.
