Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: SpaceX

Flight 15 of the SpaceX Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Friday, November 13, pending regulatory approval.

The 75-minute launch window will open at 4:45 p.m. Central “Texas” Time.

The upcoming flight is planned to be the first to return both Starship and the Super Heavy booster to the launch site for catch.

“If successful, this will mark the first full recovery of an orbital launch system and a breakthrough moment in making Starship a reliable, rapidly reusable rocket,” reports SpaceX.

Starship in orbit

Starship’s return to its launch site follows a possible 14 orbits around Earth over the course of a more than 22-hour flight.

Similar to Starship’s first orbital mission, “the flight profile has been designed with the opportunity to insert into a passively safe suborbital trajectory or safely deorbit at multiple pre-determined areas over the ocean after raising to an orbital altitude,” SpaceX explains.

Earlier flight photo shows Starship in free flight. Image credit: SpaceX

In other details, Space X points out:

• The booster’s primary objective on Flight 15 will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and return to the launch site for catch.
• This will be the first return and catch attempt for a Super Heavy V3 booster. Three V1 boosters were successfully caught on earlier flight tests with two demonstrating successful reflights.
• The Starship upper stage’s primary objectives include the deployment of 26 Starlink V3 satellites and the first return to launch site and catch at Starbase.
• Starship will only execute a return to launch site if the flight control team has ensured that the vehicle systems critical for reentry maneuvers and final landing burn and tower approach are healthy.

Starlink deployments

Starship will deliver 26 Starlink V3 satellites to orbit, which aim to greatly expand the network’s capacity and user speeds. Each Starlink V3 satellite will add 1 Terabit of capacity to the constellation, with all 26 satellites equaling roughly 10 Starlink V2 Mini launches on Falcon 9.

After deploying from Starship, the Starlink V3 satellites will unfold their antennas and deploy their solar arrays and make initial contact with the ground and the rest of the Starlink constellation via radio frequency and laser links. The satellites will then begin raising their orbits with their onboard thrusters.

Flight 14 image shows Starlink deployment.
Image credit: SpaceX

Following their on-orbit checkouts, the satellites should begin serving customers as soon as a few weeks after launch.

Starship heatshield

Three of the satellites have been modified with a suite of cameras to scan Starship’s heatshield and transmit imagery down to operators. This method of analyzing Starship’s heatshield has been tested on previous flights and is one of several data sources to help inform Starship’s readiness to return to the launch site on Flight 15.

Image credit: SpaceX

Starship’s heatshield will incorporate the improvements made on Flight 14 including additional retention mechanisms on tiles in areas deemed to be at highest risk of falling off during ascent and addressing areas with a flow path for plasma to get behind the tiles.

The vehicle will also have a large portion of the heatshield equipped with a curved tile design that has shown the ability to reduce heating in the gaps between tiles.

A live webcast of the flight will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff. Go to X @SpaceX or

https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-15

Flight 15 profile.
Image credit: SpaceX