SpaceX postpones Starship Flight 7 to January 15

SpaceX has announced postponing the Starship Flight 7 to January 15, confirming the launch schedule in the wake of unfavorable weather for this massive rocket test. Earlier today, Blue Origin also postponed its earlier targeted date from January 12 to 13 for New Glenn’s initial mission.

According to previous announcements, SpaceX internally planned for this flight on January 10 but the company officially set the first flight date for 13th. Now, it’s targeting for January 15th.

SpaceX has completed all pre-flight tests including static fire, stage integration, and wet dress rehearsal.

The Flight 7 will employ the next-generation upper stage with new upgrades and better performance. Its forward flaps are reduced in size and shifted towards the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield.

This formation will reduce the heating impact during reentry while protecting the ship’s external and internal hardware. This is one of the key objectives of this new flight test to get the ship landed with the lowest damages.

Credit – SpaceX

The ship has redesigned the propulsion system and increased by 25 percent propellant volume, feedlines vacuum jacketing, a new fuel feeling system was integrated for Raptor vacuum engines and avionics module controls.

The upper stage will remove tiles to stress-test materials to provide reentry protection.

On the other hand, SpaceX will use one Raptor engine from Flight 5 booster to Flight 7’s first stage as flight-proven hardware. Moreover, new hardware upgrades will ensure a booster catch, which failed during flight 6.

To achieve a booster catch, Flight 7th’s launch tower has protections for on-board tower sensors that were damaged during Flight 6 and resulted in the booster deflection to the Gulf of Mexico.

(source)