August 24 Launch Window Opens at 6:30 p.m. CDT

SpaceX’s Starship is getting prepared to launch on Sunday August 24, with the launch window opening at 6:30 pm CDT.

SpaceX has completed its investigations into the ninth flight test that ended with the loss of Starship as well as the Ship 36 static fire anomaly. Since then, hardware and operational changes have been made to increase the reliability of Starship operations.

In the upcoming flight, the plan is to continue expanding the operating envelope on the Super Heavy booster with multiple landing burn tests planned. Replays of previous objectives are also planned, including Starship’s first payload deployment and multiple reentry experiments aimed at returning the upper stage to the launch site to be caught.

The booster will attempt several experiments during flight to gather real-world performance data on future flight profiles and off-nominal scenarios. The Super Heavy booster will perform these experiments while on a trajectory to an offshore landing in the Gulf of America and no return catch is planned.

The Starship upper stage is scheduled for multiple objectives on its suborbital flight including the deployment of eight simulated Starlink satellites similar in size to the next-generation satellites. The satellites will also be on a suborbital trajectory and will be destroyed upon reentry. The upper stage will test a relight of a single Raptor engine while in space.

To test the upper stage’s vulnerable areas, a significant number of heat-resistant tiles have been removed, and some were replaced with various metallic tiles, including one with active cooling to test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry.

Other modifications will test the thermal and structural performance of the Starship’s catch fittings. The reentry profile is designed to intentionally stress the structural limits of the upper stage’s rear flaps while at the point of maximum entry dynamic pressure.

The tests and test flights, even when they end in sometimes spectacular failures – are intended to test the limits of what the Super Heavy boosters and Starship upper stage can do and not do. Such information is valuable for setting absolute performance limits as well as critical design and structural modifications.

FMI:  www.spacex.com/