This topic discusses the forthcoming SpaceX seventh flight test of the integrated Starship (#33) and Super Heavy booster (#14), currently scheduled for launch no earlier than 2025-01-10 22:00 UTC with a 90 minute launch window . The planned flight, if successful, will launch the craft on a near-orbital trajectory, with the first stage booster performing a boost back burn and launch tower catch (with fallback to soft water landing in the Gulf of Mexico), and the upper stage Starship accelerating to a velocity slightly less than orbital speed, causing it to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
Key differences from the last flight surround Starship. This is the first Block 2 vehicle. Also, there will be a slight adjustment to return to a nighttime Starship splashdown to allow NASA to image reentry heating.
It seems like every time Blue Origin delays the New Glenn flight SpaceX has to delay Starship.
Given the different launch locations, weather does not appear to be the controlling factor. My assumption is that the government has told SpaceX to leave a sufficient gap to allow easy further postponement in case of a New Glenn failure soaking up investigation resources.
Without realizing it, on the spacex website - viewed on the internet app on my TV - I watched a replay of flight #6. I left thinking they failed to catch the booster! Only later did I learn it was caught. I don’t know how this happened.
