This private booster, Booster 15 tablet, was launched in March and was captured by the Starbase launch tower after his return from the edge of the space. SpaceX said that 24 of the 33 raptor engines supplied with methane launched on the booster next month are “experienced flights”.
The Super Heavy booster flying next month was launched previously and was recovered from flight 8 in March.
Credit: SpaceX
Similar to the last flight of starship, the super heavy booster will be guided towards a splash off the coast of southern Texas instead of returning to Starbase.
“Its main test objective will be to demonstrate a unique configuration of the landing burn engine planned to be used on the super heavy generation,” said SpaceX.
Booster’s new landing sequence will initially use 13 of the 33 engines of the rocket, then retrograde at five motors before running only the three central engines for the last part of the burn. The booster had previously passed directly from 13 motors to three engines. The use of five engines for part of the landing sequence provides “additional redundancy for spontaneous motors stops”, according to SpaceX.
“The main objective of the flight test is to measure the dynamics of the real vehicle as the engines stop during the transition between the different phases,” said SpaceX.
Soaking to version 3
After flight 11, SpaceX will focus on new generation starship design: V3 Starship. This improved configuration will be the version that will come in orbit, allowing SpaceX to start deploying its new fleet of larger and more powerful Internet Starlink satellites.
Starship V3 will also be used to test orbital supply, something never tempted before between two spaceships with cryogenic propellants. The refueling in space is necessary to give starship enough energy to propel themselves outside the orbit from the earth to the moon and to Mars, destinations that it must reach to make the hopes of the founder of NASA and SpaceX, Elon Musk.
The first flight of Starship V3 should occur at the beginning of 2026, using a new launch ramp undergoing final outfit and by testing a short distance from the original SpaceX launching ramp. Gerstenmaier, Vice-President of SpaceX for the construction and reliability of flights, told a crowd at a conference on space industry earlier this month that the company will probably try another suborbital flight with Starship V3. If this is going well, the flight 13 could start to a low orbit a little later next year.
