The eighth launch of the super-heavy Starship rocket will take place on February 28th. This was announced by SpaceX founder Elon Musk in social network X.
At this time, SpaceX has not released detailed information about the Starship’s eighth flight profile. But in general features it is likely to follow the program of the previous test. For the first time, it involved an upgraded version of the craft, capable of taking 25 percent more fuel (1,500 tons) and carrying up to 150 tons of cargo to low Earth orbit on a reusable version.
Plan for the seventh flight envisioned the following major tasks:
- Separation and return of the Super Heavy booster;
- Deploying ten mock-ups of Starlink satellites in space;
- Restarting one of the Raptor engines in space;
- Transmission via Starlink of video and telemetry at speeds of more than 120 Mbps during each phase of Starship flight;
- Testing Starship’s updated heat shield;
- Starship’s soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
In reality, SpaceX managed to solve only the first problem. Shortly after landing the Super Heavy, Starship began a cascading engine shutdown, after which the spacecraft stopped transmitting telemetry. Starship exploded shortly thereafter. Its debris entered the atmosphere, producing a spectacular fireworks show in the sky over the islands in the Caribbean Sea. Several planes whose route passed over the suspected debris site had to turn around to eliminate the risk of collision.
Some of the Starship’s debris (mostly heat shield tiles) managed to reach the surface. Most of them fell on the Turks and Caicos Islands. Fortunately, there were no casualties from their fall and property damage was minimal. Later, Elon Musk stated that the cause of the accident was a fuel leak. It was sufficiently large to pressurize it beyond the capacity of the excess discharge port.
Starship’s eighth flight will take place on February 28th. The two-hour launch window for the launch of the super-heavy rocket will open at 5:30 PM CST (23:30 UTC).
