SpaceX Starship Completes Sixth Flight Test: Booster Diverts to Gulf, Ship Relights Raptor in Space
SpaceX launched the sixth flight test of its Starship vehicle on November 19 from Starbase in Cameron County, Texas, at the start of the launch window, with all 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster powering the vehicle off the pad.
After a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster began its boostback burn to return to the launch site. During that phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the planned catch attempt. The booster then executed its pre-planned divert maneuver, performed a landing burn and made a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Starship upper stage completed its ascent onto the expected suborbital trajectory and successfully reignited a single Raptor engine while in space, demonstrating the capability required to conduct a ship deorbit burn before fully orbital missions begin. With live views and telemetry relayed by Starlink, the ship made it through reentry, executed a flip and a landing burn, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean about 65 minutes after liftoff.
SpaceX said data from multiple thermal protection experiments, and from flying at subsonic speeds at a more aggressive angle of attack, would feed directly into making the fully reusable system more reliable, as the company works toward eventual return and catch of the ship itself. (Source: SpaceX)
Source: SpaceX
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：2024年11月19日 SpaceX 星舰第六次试飞的发射羽流，从国际空间站拍摄，下方为德克萨斯州 Starbase 发射场海岸。NASA 宇航员 Don Pettit 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The launch plume of SpaceX Starship flight 6 on November 19, 2024, pictured from the International Space Station above the Texas coast near Starbase. Photo by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
