SpaceX Starship Flight 7: Here are 14 things you should know about this new test

SpaceX will launch Starship Flight 7 on Wednesday, January 16, and here are the 14 things that you should know about this massive space launch vehicle test.

Launch Time

Flight 7 will liftoff from Boca Chica, Starbase at 4:00 p.m. CT with a 60-minute launch window.

Liftoff

For the first time, the Super Heavy booster will reuse a flight-proven Raptor engine from Flight 5 first stage recovered after catch.

Sonic boom

On Its way to the Earth, the booster will slow down from supersonic speed, which may result in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone.

Booster catch

SpaceX has made new improvements to the launch tower and increased protection for tower chopsticks’ sensors, which were damaged during Flight 6. This new improvement will help the company to catch the booster with improved reliability.

Furthermore, new radar sensors will be tested on the tower chopsticks to increase the accuracy of measuring the distance between the chopsticks and a returning vehicle for a catch.

Launch Tower at Boca Chica Starbase Facility caught Starship 5 Booster after final burn (Source – SpaceX)

Fail-safe plan

The launch tower and booster must meet certain parameters for the catch attempt. In case of any failure, the booster will deflect to the Gulf of Mexico for splashdown.

Sixth SpaceX Starship Super Heavy Booster Slashdown into the Gulf of Mexico (Source – SpaceX)

Payload simulator

For the first time, SpaceX will try a payload deployment sequence with 10 Starlink simulators. These are similar in size and weight to the next-generation Starlink satellites.

New Ship

Flight 7 will be the inaugural mission for the next-generation Starship with new upgrades for reliability and performance.

SpaceX Starship Single-Engine Fire Test (Credit – SpaceX)

Smaller Flaps

The ship has reduced-sized forward flaps, shifted toward the vehicle tip and away from the heat shield. This transformation will reduce reentry heat impact on the ship’s heat shield and thermal protection.

Redesigned propulsion

The next-gen Starship has a redesigned propulsion system with a 25% increase in propellant volume, vacuum jacketing of feedlines, a new fueled feedline system for engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module controlling valve and reading sensors.

Heat shield

Flight 7 ship utilizes the latest generation tiles with a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.

New Experiments

The ship used for this mission has removed a significant number of tiles to stress-test vulnerable areas around the upper stage. SpaceX will test new alternative materials to protect the ship during reentry.

SpaceX Starship Spacecraft goes hypersonic during reentry to Earth’s atmosphere (Source – SpaceX)

The non-structural version of the ship catch fittings is installed to test the fittings’ thermal performance with a smoothed and tapered edge of the tile line to address hot spots that were identified during Flight 6.

The reentry profile is customized to intentionally increase heat and stress on the flaps at the point of max entry dynamic pressure.

Avionics upgrade

The new Avionics redesign includes a powerful flight computer, and integrated antennas (Starlink, GNSS, backup RF communication features into each unit).

SpaceX has redesigned inertial navigation and star tracking sensors, integrated smart batteries and power units to distribute data, and 2.7MW of power throughout the ship to 24 high-voltage actuators.

This change will enable the vehicle engineering team to get more insights into hardware performance during the flight.

Landing

The ship will perform a landing flip at around 1 hour and 6 minutes in the mission time, followed by a landing burn in a few seconds and a vertical splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX Starship Splash Down In the Indian Ocean (Source – SpaceX)

Launch coverage

SpaceX will broadcast the entire launch event via Starlink satellite including the reentry and splashdown. Check our Livestream guide here.