Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: SpaceX

The seventh flight test of the SpaceX Starship atop its Super Heavy booster is being readied for launch.

According to SpaceX, the upcoming flight test, reportedly targeted for January 10, will launch a new generation ship “with significant upgrades.”

In addition, there will be an attempt for Starship’s first payload deployment test, fly multiple reentry experiments geared towards ship catch and reuse, and launch and return the Super Heavy booster.

Image credit: SpaceX

Major improvements

A block of planned upgrades to the Starship upper stage will debut on this flight test, bringing major improvements to reliability and performance.

The upcoming test flight will debut:

• The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield
• Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25 percent increase in propellant volume,
• The vacuum jacketing of feedlines
• A new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines
• An improved propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and reading sensors.

These upgrades add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions, explains SpaceX. Additionally, the ship’s heat shield will also use the latest generation tiles and includes a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Increasingly complex missions

According to the SpaceX website, the vehicle’s avionics underwent a complete redesign, adding additional capability and redundancy “for increasingly complex missions like propellant transfer and ship return to launch site.”

Those avionics upgrades include a more powerful flight computer, integrated antennas which combine Starlink, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and backup Radio Frequency communication functions into each unit.

Also, the ship is outfitted with a redesigned inertial navigation and star tracking sensors, integrated smart batteries and power units that distribute data and power across the ship to 24 high-voltage actuators.

There will be an increase to more than 30 vehicle cameras to provide engineers insight into hardware performance across the vehicle during flight.

Actual photo of stage separation via SpaceX tracking camera. Image credit: SpaceX

Synchronize with Starlink

By using the SpaceX Starlink system, the vehicle is capable of streaming more than 120 megabits per second (Mbps) of real-time high-definition video and telemetry in every phase of flight. That capability yields engineering data to rapidly iterate across all systems.

While in space, Starship will deploy 10 “Starlink simulators.” These are similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites. This will be the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean.

A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.

Stress-test

Regarding return to launch site and catch, the upcoming flight test will include several experiments to further that capability.

“On Starship’s upper stage, a significant number of tiles will be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry,” SpaceX reports.

Catch via chopsticks. Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

“On the sides of the vehicle, non-structural versions of ship catch fittings are installed to test the fittings’ thermal performance, along with a smoothed and tapered edge of the tile line to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test,” the company posting adds.

The ship’s reentry profile on this flight will intentionally stress the structural limits of the flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure.

Tower chopsticks

Several radar sensors will be tested on the tower chopsticks. The goal is to increase the accuracy when measuring distances between the chopsticks and a returning vehicle during catch.

The Super Heavy booster will utilize flight proven hardware for the first time, reusing a Raptor engine from the booster launched and returned on Starship’s fifth flight test.

The new SpaceX posting explains why there was no tower chopstick catch on the sixth test flight.

Image credit: SpaceX

For this soon-to-fly test, there are protections to the sensors on the tower chopsticks “that were damaged at launch and resulted in the booster offshore divert on Starship’s previous flight test.”

Accept no compromises

“Distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch of the Super Heavy booster, requiring healthy systems on the booster and tower and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director,” SpaceX explains. “If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.”

To ensure the safety of the public and the SpaceX launch team, “we accept no compromises,” the website notes, “and the return will only take place if conditions are right.”

“This new year will be transformational for Starship,” SpaceX concludes, “with the goal of bringing reuse of the entire system online and flying increasingly ambitious missions as we iterate towards being able to send humans and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.”

Image credit: SpaceX