The FAA has given SpaceX the go-ahead for the next launch of Starship, its super heavy launcher, from Starbase, Texas (yes, that is the name of the city). This is Starship’s ninth test flight, and the third flight of Ship’s, the upper stage, block 2 design, which is an improved version of the original Ship. SpaceX intends to fly on May 27, at no earlier than 7:30 PM EST
Flight Nine of Starship aims to reach past the Kármán Line, roughly 100 kilometers in altitude and the point where space starts, and deploy a set of simulators based off of the Starlink system, SpaceX’s satellite internet constellation. After deploying the simulators, the ship will reenter the atmosphere and land in the (formerly named) Gulf of Mexico. Flight Nine is also the first reflight of a Starship booster, using the booster that flew on Flight Seven.
The previous two flights of Starship, Seven and Eight, both ended in a partial failure, where the first stage of both flights was recovered by landing back at Starbase, SpaceX’s Texas launch complex, using a set of “Chopsticks” to catch them from the air. The upper stages, however both exploded after several minutes of flight, sending showers of debris over several islands in the Caribbean, and causing the FAA and others to pause flights.
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