Elon Musk’s SpaceX continues to cut the time taken between test flights.
Starship embarked on its second test flight on November 18, 2023, a significant 212 days after its initial, problematic launch in April of the same year, which led to an extensive federal investigation.
The interval between its second and third launch on March 14 was reduced to 117 days, indicating an improvement, though still below SpaceX's expectations.
This time continues to shorten with Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president and COO, hinting at a potential fourth launch in about six weeks from the third test, signalling the fastest turnaround for the spacecraft to date.
The March 14 test lasted 49 minutes and Starship achieved several objectives, despite issues with the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage. Successes included the ignition of all 33 booster engines, successful hot staging and stage separation, and the demonstration of in-flight propellant transfer.
Challenges remained, as an upper-stage engine failed to reignite due to unexpected rolling, and the Super Heavy booster exploded before a soft landing attempt. Furthermore, Starship disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, thwarting the goal of a hard splashdown.
FAA investigation
The FAA investigated the mishaps and SpaceX must now have an amended launch licence in place, however, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation Kelvin Coleman doesn’t see any issues with this being approved.
“We didn’t see anything major. We don’t think there’s any critical systems for safety that were implicated,”Coleman said.
“Usually if there’s not any critical systems for safety implicated, the mishap investigation can be pretty clean and it can move pretty quickly.”
The investigation report should be available in the next few weeks.
The launch-by-launch approval process is also being reviewed to see if it can be more streamlined and managed as a collective group.
Focused on getting re-entry right
During the Satellite 2024 conference on March 19, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, described the third Starship test flight as "incredibly successful," indicating that the mission met its targeted objectives.
Shotwell conveyed optimism about resolving the technical issues encountered in the rocket's stages and projected a timeline for the fourth test flight, expected in early May.
Addressing speculation, Shotwell clarified that the forthcoming launch would not involve deploying Starlink satellites. Instead, the focus will be on perfecting the re-entry and landing processes.
Siva Bharadvaj, a SpaceX commentator, confirmed the company's readiness, with four Starships and four Super Heavy boosters already constructed and additional units in production.
SpaceX's long-term goal is to establish a cycle of launching Starships into orbit, deploying satellites, and achieving efficient recovery and relaunch of the rocket stages. This strategy underpins the development of Starship as a fully reusable launch system, which is anticipated to significantly impact the aerospace sector.