SpaceX’s next Starship flight test could include a new milestone, according to a teaser included in a highlights video from the rocket’s fourth flight test.
SpaceX posted the video on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday (July 4), which contains a montage of milestones from Starship’s fourth flight test that took place on June 6. of both Starship upper stage and its Super Heavy booster.
At the end of the video, an animation shows a 400-foot-tall Super Heavy returning to land on Starship’s launch tower, known as “Mechazilla,” alongside the words “Next” and “Flight 5,” suggesting the company plans to try to capture the booster on your next flight test. SpaceX plans to capture the Super Heavy in its launch tower so the rocket can be refurbished and relaunched more efficiently and in shorter time frames, the company said.
SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk also hinted at this on social media. “I plan to try this at the end of July!” Musk wrote on X last month, following Starship’s fourth flight test.
The company previously posted a 60-second animation of the chopstick arms on Mechazilla’s massive launch tower catching a Super Heavy booster as it landed at Starbase, SpaceX’s South Texas site.
Before that, on June 27th, the company posted a short X-video of Mechzilla’s chopstick arms holding a stationary Super Heavy as he sits upright in his launch mount. “Starbase team testing tower chopsticks for upcoming capture of a Super Heavy booster,” SpaceX wrote in the video description.
RELATED STORIES
– Watch SpaceX pick up the Starship Super Heavy booster with ‘chopsticks’ in this animation
– Starship and Super Heavy: SpaceX’s Mars transportation system
– SpaceX fires Starship rocket for upcoming fifth test flight (photos, video)
Starship has been launched four times to date: in April and November 2023, and on March 18 and June 6, 2024. Each test has been more successful than the last, marking additional milestones each time.
On its first flight, Starship’s two stages did not separate and the vehicle was detonated in less than five minutes. On their most recent mission, both Starship and Super Heavy re-entered Earth’s atmosphere intact, both making splashes into the ocean.
The massive vehicle was designed with off-world destinations in mind. SpaceX wants Starship to reach Mars and potentially help settle humans there, while NASA plans to use the rocket to land crews on the moon during the Artemis program.
