CEO Elon Musk recently confirmed that SpaceX’s next Starship test flight will take place soon.
The previous four test flights have shown repeated progress, with each Starship launch showing more positive results than the last. The 400-foot-tall rocket will eventually make life interplanetary; that is SpaceX’s goal, anyway.
Starship continues to undergo routine test flights, however, and conducted its first on April 20, 2023, with Integrated Test Flight 1, also known as IFT-1. This lasted for about four minutes in total, as SpaceX initiated the flight termination system, which destroyed the vehicle about 40 seconds after launch.
Then, in November, IFT-2 lasted eight minutes and fifty-five seconds before filter blockages caused several booster engines to fail. Once again, the flight termination system was activated when it reached an altitude of about 92 miles (148 kilometers).
IFT-3 took place in March, lasted over 49 minutes and disintegrated before a planned landing in the Indian Ocean. The booster was eventually destroyed about 462 meters above the ocean.
IFT-4 took place in June and was SpaceX’s most successful Starship mission to date. It lasted over an hour and included a successful reentry and a successful controlled landing in the Indian Ocean.
IFT-5 is set to launch soon and Musk believes it will launch in about four weeks, according to what the CEO said at X:
Based on the success of IFT-4, it appears that the rapid turnaround time of ITF-5 launch means SpaceX is poised to make further progress with launching its Starships. Space.com say.
After IFT-4, SpaceX had fewer issues to analyze and resolve, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not require further investigations as it had with other post-flight reports.
SpaceX wants to bring back the giant booster for a pinpoint landing on the Starbase launch site with IFT-5. If they succeed, it will be another huge step forward.
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