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SpaceX eyes 25 annual Starship launches starting next year

Joey Klender — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 20:42:30 +0000

SpaceX is potentially looking to launch Starship 25 times starting next year, a major uptick in the number of times the rocket will take off compared to years past.

Starship launches are becoming more frequent now that SpaceX is moving quickly toward both unmanned and manned missions to Mars in the coming years. This year, SpaceX launched Starship four times.

That number will increase significantly, according to new documents from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

SpaceX currently has permission to launch five times per year from Starbase in Texas, but a revised draft of the Environmental Assessment for Increased Cadence of Starship and Super Heavy states the figure is moving upward.

This would bring 50 total landings, 25 of Starship and 25 of Super Heavy, with 25 total launches starting next year.

The FAA said in its proposed action:

“The FAA’s federal action is to modify SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license to authorize SpaceX’s proposed action to increase the cadence of the Starship/Super Heavy launch program (see Section 1.1) at the Boca Chica vertical launch area (VLA) in Cameron County, Texas to up to 25 annual launches and 50 total annual landings (25 of the Starship and 25 of the Super Heavy), and make vehicle and operational upgrades.”

The FAA is also preparing for 22 daytime launches and up to three nighttime launches next year.

This would be a major acceleration in the cadence of SpaceX’s launches and would make Starship launches a much more frequent occurrence than previously. SpaceX recently had roughly a month between their last two Starship launches.

SpaceX successfully launches sixth Starship test flight with no catch

We would see two per month if SpaceX and the FAA are able to bring approval to the newly revised plan.

Landings would be different as well. Currently, only 10 Starship landings and five Super Heavy landings are permitted each year. These would both be boosted up to 25.

SpaceX plans to land both Super Heavy and Starship back on land or on floating platforms, like the droneships it employs for the Starlink launches. However, hard water landings, soft water landings, and in-flight breakups are always possible.

Nevertheless, SpaceX says it anticipates no more than 20 of these events for each vehicle for the life of the program. “These scenarios would occur within the first five years of the program,” the FAA said.

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk makes shock claim about Jeff Bezos, reigniting rivalry

Joey Klender — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 15:49:09 +0000

Update: Jeff Bezos has said this is “100% not true.”

Nope. 100% not true.

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 21, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made a shocking claim about former Amazon frontman Jeff Bezos, potentially reigniting their rivalry and bringing forward some potential friction between the two.

Bezos reportedly was convinced that President-elect Donald Trump would lose the November election to Vice President Kamala Harris and told “everyone” to sell their Tesla and SpaceX shares as they would come crashing down if Trump lost.

Musk and Trump became a bit of a duo during the final months of the election campaign as the Tesla CEO became more vocal about his decision to back the former President in 2024. Musk was alongside Trump in various events in swing state Pennsylvania, where the two spent a significant amount of time over the past few months.

However, the race was all but decided by the time election night came around, and now Musk is stating that Bezos was encouraging people to sell their Tesla and SpaceX holdings because of their value being diminished in the event of a Kamala Harris victory:

“Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that Donald Trump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock.”

Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 21, 2024

Musk and Bezos have had a rivalry in the sense that they have sparred for the title of World’s Richest Person for several years, but also because they have a shared industry in spaceflight.

Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’s Blue Origin are two private spaceflight companies, but one is performing launches much more frequently than the other.

It seems interesting that Bezos would tell people this, if it is true because Tesla would likely stand to benefit from either administration, especially considering the company’s prowess in the EV sector.

EVs would have continued to flourish under the Harris administration because of the Democrats and their want to push EVs through a federal ban on gas cars, which would come in 2035.

However, Musk’s transparency regarding who he supported during the election would have been a major reason the Harris White House might not have been keen to recognize Tesla for its accomplishments, much like Joe Biden did during his four years in Washington as President.

Tesla shares are up over 35 percent since Trump was elected on November 5.

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SpaceX provides more insight on why it canceled Starship catch attempt

Joey Klender — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:05:05 +0000

SpaceX is providing more insight on why it decided to cancel its attempt at catching Starship’s Super Heavy booster. It would have been the second attempt in as many launches for SpaceX, but the company chose to wait for a better opportunity.

As the launch neared on Tuesday, many suspected SpaceX would attempt its second catch of the Super Heavy booster.

It tried this for the first time in mid-October with the fifth Starship test launch and successfully completed the catch, marking an unbelievable accomplishment for the program.

SpaceX aces fifth Starship test flight with successful Super Heavy booster catch

CEO Elon Musk has said that SpaceX will eventually attempt to catch both the booster and the ship next year, but the objective for this launch was to have a “faster and harder” catch of Super Heavy.

As Starship took off on time at 4 p.m. local in Starbase, Texas, it was decided roughly five minutes into the flight that the catch attempt would be aborted. The broadcast on X of the launch contained some details, but they were relatively slim and only stated that SpaceX was prioritizing safety.

In a blog post after the launch, SpaceX gave more details:

“Following a nominal ascent and stage separation, the booster successfully transitioned to its boostback burn to begin the return to launch site. During this phase, automated health checks of critical hardware on the launch and catch tower triggered an abort of the catch attempt. The booster then executed a pre-planned divert maneuver, performing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.”

It appears the seventh Starship launch will have no catch attempt, either.

Musk said SpaceX will do “one more ocean landing of the ship,” then it will attempt another catch if that goes well.

Successful ocean landing of Starship!

We will do one more ocean landing of the ship. If that goes well, then SpaceX will attempt to catch the ship with the tower. https://t.co/osFud7XXPo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2024

All in all, it was a successful launch that provided significant feedback for SpaceX as it embarks on future missions.

SpaceX said:

“Data gathered from the multiple thermal protection experiments, as well as the successful flight through subsonic speeds at a more aggressive angle of attack, provides invaluable feedback on flight hardware performing in a flight environment as we aim for eventual ship return and catch.

With data and flight learnings as our primary payload, Starship’s sixth flight test once again delivered. Lessons learned will directly make the entire Starship system more reliable as we close in on full and rapid reusability.”

There are no expected dates for the seventh test launch as of now.

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SpaceX successfully launches sixth Starship test flight with no catch

Joey Klender — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 22:26:41 +0000

SpaceX successfully launched its sixth test flight of Starship on Tuesday from Starbase, Texas. There was no catch today, as SpaceX did not see favorable conditions for the attempt.

Starship took off on time right at 4:00 p.m. CT, and the Super Heavy booster landed with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff.

Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024

About two minutes before the successful splashdown, SpaceX decided to abort an attempt at catching Super Heavy once again. SpaceX kept safety as a priority as always and decided that conditions for a catch attempt were not met. It called for a booster offshore divert and completed it with no issues.

CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X that he hoped to catch Super Heavy faster and harder with this launch, along with three other objectives:

The objectives for Starship Flight 6 are:

1. Restart of Raptor engines in vacuum.
2. Daylight landing of the ship.
3. Higher peak heating (steeper) reentry.
4. Faster/harder booster catch.

There are thousands of small design changes also being tested.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024

The Banana Payload

SpaceX teased the involvement of a banana for IFT-6 with images of the rocket moving to the launch pad several days ago:

During the broadcast on X of the Starship test flight, it was explained that the banana was symbolic for the first-ever payload carried onboard. A banana was placed on board for a zero gravity indicator, but it was also so SpaceX could go through the approval process for payloads with the FAA.

SpaceX broadcast hosts said it would familiarize SpaceX with the regulatory process with the FAA, likely hoping to avoid the issues the company has had with the agency in the past. Also, it seems to be a sign that SpaceX is ready to start testing payloads, with launches taking place in 2025.

You can pick up some of the Banana (For Scale) merch on SpaceX’s website. I’ve already picked what I am going to grab from this launch:

I might have to get this for my office pic.twitter.com/D7GTJ00CpH

— Joey Klender (@KlenderJoey) November 19, 2024

SpaceX could launch the seventh test flight before the end of the year. The fifth Starship launch took place in October, just over a month ago. There is a possibility SpaceX will push the envelope and try one more time before Christmas, but it remains to be seen if the company will instead wait until early 2025.

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Elon Musk sets four expectations for SpaceX Starship’s sixth test flight

Joey Klender — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 15:52:56 +0000

Elon Musk has set the expectations for SpaceX’s sixth test flight of Starship with four objectives that must be achieved in order for the launch to be considered a success.

The sixth flight of Starship will aim to push the limits of what is thought possible by a rocket of this size, especially as the last test launch ended with a successful catch of the first-stage booster.

It was something nobody had ever seen before:

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

While SpaceX plans to catch both the booster and the rocket sometime next year, Musk said that the company aims to improve on the catch of just the first-stage booster with the sixth test flight.

This is just one of the four objectives Musk has in store for the sixth Starship test flight, which is set to occur today.

Musk outlined the four objectives:

Restart of Raptor engines in vacuum.
Daylight landing of the ship.
Higher peak heating (steeper) reentry
Faster/harder booster catch.

The SpaceX and Tesla frontman also said Starship equips “thousands of small design changes” that are also being tested.

Perhaps the most notable of the four objectives is the fourth, as it will be a good transition to eventually catching both the booster and the rocket.

The entire idea behind the Starship program is to create rockets that are totally reusable, something that will come with time but is not quite available as an option for SpaceX currently.

Based on what happened with the last launch and catch, SpaceX could be well on its way to making a catch of the rocket and booster a reality.

Liftoff is currently targeted for 4:00 p.m. CT or 5:00 p.m. on the East Coast.

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SpaceX readies for sixth Starship test launch: here’s when it could happen

Joey Klender — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:12:18 +0000

SpaceX is readying for its sixth test launch of Starship as it aims to push the envelope once again in preparations for another potential “catch” of great proportions sometime next year.

Following the successful catch of the first-stage booster last month, CEO Elon Musk wants to take things a step further. A few weeks ago, he said that SpaceX could attempt to catch both the booster and the upper stage, but this likely won’t happen until next year.

Whether SpaceX even attempts the feat could be revealed sooner than we might think. While it is unlikely the company will attempt to catch the upper stage with the next launch, there always is the possibility.

The company recently rolled Starship to its launch pad, indicating the sixth test launch could be nearing, less than one month after its fifth.

Starship moved to the pad at Starbase in advance of our sixth flight test pic.twitter.com/u6Mbc35ARr

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 12, 2024

Other preparations are also taking place. Brownsville, Texas, is shutting down roads for SpaceX operations on November 18, 19, and 20 from 8 am to 10 pm.

The implications of the Starship program are huge, especially considering Musk revealed recently that he hopes to send the rocket to Mars in two years.

Two years after that, he’d like to put humans on Starship and attempt the first manned flights to Mars, the first step in the ultimately bold plan to establish the red planet as the first to support human beings outside of Earth.

Musk said:

“The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.”

SpaceX said the test flight was expected for Monday, November 18, but it is evident the company is preparing

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SpaceX sends 24 more Starlink satellites into orbit

Joey Klender — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 19:45:53 +0000

SpaceX sent 24 more Starlink high-speed internet satellites into orbit on Monday, launching a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) in Florida.

The launch occurred at 4:23 p.m. ET on Monday, with a Falcon 9 with tail number B1080 taking off from Cape Canaveral.

It was the 12th flight for this specific first-stage booster, and was previously responsible for the Euclid, Axiom-2, Axiom-3, Cygnus NG-21, SES 24, and CRS-30 missions.

It has now launched six Starlink missions, as well.

Falcon 9 delivers 24 @Starlink satellites to orbit from Florida pic.twitter.com/Vq5n538ORd

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 11, 2024

The Starlink 6-69 mission was set to launch on Sunday, but SpaceX decided to scrub the launch in favor of Monday due to weather.

The Starlink satellites heading to low-Earth orbit on this launch were of the V2 Mini variety. This is only the second time SpaceX has chosen to launch 24 total satellites with a single mission. In the past, it has routinely launched 23 satellites.

Elon Musk explains why Trump White House would benefit SpaceX Starship

Just about eight minutes after liftoff, the B1080 tail landed on the ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ droneship, the pad’s 84th landing.

SpaceX is nearing its goal of 144 total missions for the year. This was the 108th Falcon 9 launch of 2024. The launch prior to this one in Florida was that of Starlink 6-69 as well, but this takeoff was from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and took place on Friday:

Amazing work by the @SpaceX west coast team on launch #37(!!!) from Vandenberg this year. We are so thankful for our amazing partnership with the @SLDelta30, @SpaceForceDoD, and @DeptofDefense. So much effort from all parties went into clearing the way for increased launch… https://t.co/sZERa6JdAr

— Kiko Dontchev (@TurkeyBeaver) November 9, 2024

Next on the agenda will be a few more Starlink launches that are set to take off before the end of the week. The company is also looking toward the sixth Starship test flight in the coming weeks. CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that it would be coming soon.

As of now, the earliest expected date that IFT-6 would launch is next Monday, November 18.

Launching on this date will require SpaceX to obtain all necessary FAA licenses.

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SpaceX reveals when sixth Starship test flight could take off

Joey Klender — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:04:09 +0000

SpaceX has revealed when it plans to launch its sixth test flight of the Starship rocket, which will eventually be responsible for taking life from Earth to Mars.

In mid-October, SpaceX successfully launched the fifth test flight of Starship from Starbase, Texas, with the intention of catching the Super Heavy Booster. It did, marking a major accomplishment and milestone in the Starship project, which has continued to improve with each launch.

SpaceX aces fifth Starship test flight with successful Super Heavy booster catch

SpaceX will continue with the Starship program, now planning for the sixth test flight in the program’s history. The company revealed on Wednesday that it is slated its earliest opportunity for IFT-6 on Monday, November 18, roughly a week and a half from today:

Starship’s fifth flight test was a seminal moment in iterating towards a fully and rapidly reusable launch system.

Next up: the sixth flight test of Starship is targeted to launch as early as Monday, November 18 → https://t.co/oIFc3u9laE pic.twitter.com/5496ApNHkA

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 6, 2024

There are big hopes for the sixth test flight, as SpaceX frontman Elon Musk has already confirmed that it will attempt to not only catch Super Heavy Booster but Starship as well, which would be unprecedented as it would be just a month after defying the odds with the first “catch.”

The timing of the sixth test flight will all depend on whether SpaceX can have an efficient, smooth, and streamlined approval license process from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

SpaceX has had a difficult relationship with the FAA for some time, even going as far as to criticize the agency for delaying Starship’s fifth test flight and sending the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for launches that occurred more than a year prior.

Be sure to follow us as we will update you with the launch date of Starship’s sixth test flight.

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Elon Musk explains why Trump White House would benefit SpaceX Starship

Joey Klender — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:19:04 +0000

Elon Musk said a Trump White House would benefit SpaceX’s Starship program and the optimistic goals it has to bring uncrewed launches to Mars within two years at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Saudi Arabia.

Starship is SpaceX’s rocket that will make life multiplanetary, and with five successful test launches already, Musk believes it will be taking unmanned missions to Mars in the coming years.

A month ago, Musk said 2026 would be the ideal year to attempt the first launches with the intention of landing on Mars. 2028 would be the first year SpaceX could attempt to take humans to Mars.

SpaceX aces fifth Starship test flight with successful Super Heavy booster catch

Musk doubled down on this timeframe over the weekend at one of his Town Hall events:

“In roughly two years, there will be another planetary alignment, and that’s when we intend to send the first Starship rockets to Mars.”

Things are still moving forward and trending in the right direction, especially as it continues to perform successful test flights and push the limits of what some thought was possible.

But now it seems Musk is very understanding that some things also need to happen in order to keep the timeframe realistic.

Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX have battled some issues with the Biden Administration. Biden refused at one point to mention Tesla as a leader in EVs, and regulatory agencies were delaying a lot of SpaceX’s launches due to bottlenecks in the approval procedures.

Musk said during the conference yesterday that he believes a Trump White House would be more beneficial for SpaceX’s Starship plans because of “overregulation”:

“I feel more optimistic about it under with a Trump White House than a non-Trump white house because the biggest impediment in progress that we’re experiencing is overregulation. It takes longer to get the permit to launch than to build a giant rocket. A lot of countries are getting slow strangulation from overregulation. Unless something is done to push back on that, it’ll eventually become illegal to do almost any large project and we won’t be able to get to Mars.”

SpaceX detailed the issues with overregulation in a blog post a few months ago called “Starships are meant to fly.”

The company detailed the issues with regulation, including “it takes longer to do government paperwork than it does to license a rocket.”

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SpaceX almost ditched the insane Starship booster catch at the last second

Joey Klender — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:49:32 +0000

SpaceX almost ditched the catch of the Starship booster during the fifth integrated test flight (IFT-5) at the last second earlier this month. The catch was arguably the biggest accomplishment in the history of the program, which aims to put humans on Mars in the coming years.

On October 13, SpaceX successfully launched its fifth test flight of Starship, followed by a successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean by the upper stage.

However, the main highlight of the launch was SpaceX’s intention to catch the massive first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, just seven minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX aces fifth Starship test flight with successful Super Heavy booster catch

The launch tower, known as Mechazilla, used its “chopstick” arms to complete the catch in what is one of the most marvelous and unbelievable things that you will ever see:

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

However, it almost did not even happen. SpaceX nearly aborted the attempt at the last second, engineers told CEO Elon Musk recently, according to Space.com.

Musk, during a stream of his Diablo IV gameplay on X last Friday, was speaking to three engineers who told him the details of the entire thought process:

“I wanted to be really up-front about scary shit that happened and what we’re doing about it, because I think that’s our focus on getting to Flight 6. We had a misconfigured spin gas abort that didn’t have quite the right ramp-up time for bringing up spin pressure, and we were one second away from that tripping and telling the rocket to abort and try to crash into the ground next to the tower instead of [landing at] the tower — like, erroneously tell a healthy rocket to not try that catch.”

Musk had a simple response: “Wow.”

The engineer continued on:

“We knew we had a whole bunch of new aborts and commit criteria that we tried to double-check really well. I think our concern was well-placed, and one of these came really close to biting us.”

SpaceX’s next Starship launch will likely take place in early 2025, Elon Musk said. However, the company plans to take things one step further by catching the upper stage as well, Musk said on October 15.

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