SpaceX's Starship V3 returns for 2nd test flight today
What's the story
SpaceX is gearing up for the test flight of its Starship V3 rocket for the second time this year. The launch is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, from Starbase in Texas. The 90-minute launch window will open at 6:45pm ET (4:15am IST on Friday). This will be the 13th full-scale test flight of the world's largest rocket and the second using its latest version. SpaceX's live webcast will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff on its X account.
Previous flight
What happened during the maiden flight
The maiden test flight of Starship V3 on May 22 was mostly successful.
The rocket lifted off, separated from its booster, reached space, and splashed down in the Indian Ocean after deploying 20 dummy Starlink satellites.
However, there were some issues. One of the 33 Raptor 3 engines on the Super Heavy booster shut down during ascent and failed to relight for a boostback burn post-stage separation.
Improvements
Fixing the issues from last time
For the upcoming Flight 13, SpaceX plans to replicate the objectives of Flight 12 and fix its problems.
The company has modified Super Heavy for better engine re-light reliability and updated engine alarms/aborts to match multi-engine flight conditions.
The booster flip maneuver was also off by about 90 degrees last time, so engineers have changed the engine startup sequence and addressed the causes of upper stage engine failure.
Satellite deployment
First test of Starlink V3 satellites
Flight 13 will also deploy real, functional Starlink V3 satellites for the first time.
The 20 deployed satellites will extend their solar arrays and antennas and try to connect with the larger Starlink constellation.
However, they won't actually join the operational network but stay on a suborbital trajectory and burn up upon reentry about 20 minutes after deployment.
Heat shield test
Testing heat shield on Starship
SpaceX will also test Starship's heat shield in this flight. The company plans to try new ways of attaching some heat shield tiles and place a few in different locations.
Sensor-equipped tiles that measure forces acting on the heat shield will also be tested as they experience higher dynamic pressure during ascent than previous flights.
This extra stress on the tiles simulates increased payload-to-orbit capacity.