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SpaceX ’s massive Starship rocket could take to the sky for the fourth time on June 5 , with the elemental objective of evaluating the second microscope stage ’s reclaimable heat cuticle as the vehicle tries to safely reenter the atm for the first time .
CEO Elon Musksaid on his social mass medium platform Xthat “ There are many sturdy issues to solve with this vehicle , but the biggest stay problem is making a reusable orbital issue heat carapace , which has never been done before . ”
That means the 2nd stage ’s novel rut shield , composed of around 18,000 ceramic hexagonal tiles , will be put to the exam . Those tiles are designed to protect the 2d stage ( which is also call Starship ) from the utmost temperature have when reentering Earth ’s atmosphere . One of the biggest issues , Musk suggested , is the vulnerability of the organization overall : “ we are not resilient to loss of a single tile in most places , ” he said . That means a undivided discredited or faulty roofing tile could lead to catastrophe .
As Musk noted in his situation , survive reentry is just one part of the puzzle . The company will also call for to show an “ entirely newfangled supplying chain ” for the high - performance heat shield tiles , and manufacture them at a very high volume .
It ’s a tough problem , but solving it would move them nigher to the holy Sangraal of launch vehicle : full reusability . SpaceX made major headway in reusability with its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket — which has flown 56 time so far this year alone — but although the company recovers the relay link , the second stage is expend in its prey area . By recycle both stage of the rocket , SpaceX is hop to drive down costs to a fraction of what they are today , all while give up many society of magnitude more mass to orbit in a single launch . ( SpaceX ’s Transporter rideshare missions be $ 6,000 per kg . )
If all goes to architectural plan , the society will demonstrate the ability to return Starship to Earth via a manipulate reentry and a mild splashdown in the Indian Ocean . SpaceX is also aiming to come back the booster , called Super Heavy , also via ocean splashdown . And it will get one stone’s throw closer to bringing the large and most brawny launching organization ever build online , ready to transport cargo and eventually crew to Earth ’s orbit and beyond .
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This next spaceship launch will be the fourth in a series of orbital flight tests thatkicked off last April . Before the launch can move in advance , SpaceX must get a commercial-grade launching license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration , the agency responsible for order commercial launch cognitive operation . The FAA also oversees investigation into skyrocket launches that go lopsided for any reason , and so it ’s been working closely with SpaceX throughout the Starship test crusade .
And the previous Starship launches have for sure gone askew : The first two finish in fiery mid - air explosions , and the third concluded when both Super Heavy and Starship likely decompose before hitting the ocean . But for SpaceX , which takes an iterative access to hardware development , each test was in the end a success because they furnished technologist with data point on the rocket in a actual - world flight of steps environment . And it ’s true that each mission has gone further than the one previous : During the third trajectory , the locomotive pulled off full - duration burns as the fomite ascend , and Starshipultimately reached orbit for the first time .
Eventually , SpaceX aims to land both the Super Heavy booster and Starship 2d stage at its launch facility in southeast Texas , where they can be quickly renovate and returned to the inkpad .
