SpaceX’s Fifth Test Flight Will Launch from Starbase

SpaceX’s Starship will launch in four weeks according to SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. Musk, who also owns social media platform X, posted there on July 5, "Flight 5 in 4 weeks."

The approximate two-month turnaround after its last flight June 6 is faster than the previous launch interval for Starship. That’s because Flight 4 went entirely according to plan so there were fewer technical issues to resolve and no FAA mishap investigation or regulatory approval were required. So the limiting factor determining the timing of Flight 5 is fixing the remaining technical issues.

Starship is a two stage vehicle consisting of the 235-foot tall first-stage Super Heavy booster and the 165-foot tall second-stage Starship, referred to simply as Ship. The upcoming flight will launch from SpaceX’s Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, and will feature the first time Super Heavy is planned to execute a pinpoint landing back on its launch pad, assisted by the arms of the launch tower. 

Both stages are designed for reuse so a return landing of Ship will be incorporated into a future flight.

The previous four test flights have performed better on each successive flight. In the last flight the two sections separated on time and came down as planned, with splashdowns of Ship in the Indian Ocean and Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico.

Starship is designed for launching missions to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

FMI:  www.space.com/ , www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/