SpaceX Puts the Pedal to the Metal: It Will Launch the Last Starship of the Current Generation in Less Than Two Weeks

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has a lot to celebrate this week, but the fans of the aerospace company he runs do, too. All signs point to a surge in Starship launches. The sixth flight, the final mission for the current generation of spacecraft, already has a flight plan and tentative date.

Nov. 18. Less than a month ago, the historic fifth flight saw the Mechazilla tower successfully catch the Super Heavy booster with its arms. Now, SpaceX has announced Starship’s sixth flight and plans to advance the rocket’s full reusability.

The sixth flight’s trajectory will remain largely the same. However, there will be a new schedule—Starship will launch from southeast Texas at sunset, aiming for a more visible descent and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

A new landing. SpaceX will use a different booster (Booster 13 instead of Booster 12, which it recovered in the fifth flight) and attempt to recover the Super Heavy stage with the launch tower arms. If any issues arise, the booster will adjust its trajectory for a safe splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

SpaceX expects the upper stage (Starship 31) to withstand even higher temperatures than previous flights. During the fifth flight, Starship executed its first controlled entry and precise splashdown in the Indian Ocean, though plasma interference continued to challenge the spacecraft’s aileron seals.

Modifications. On the sixth flight, the spacecraft will re-enter at a steeper angle to test the limits of the ailerons. In addition, certain parts of these aerodynamic surfaces will have new heat shield materials. The spacecraft’s heat shield will also have sections missing where SpaceX plans to install capture hardware for future missions, which it will also attempt to retrieve with the Mechazilla tower arms.

The sixth flight will also be the first time Starship re-ignites a Raptor engine in a vacuum, a critical test for future orbital flights that will require de-orbiting. SpaceX initially planned to conduct this test during the third flight but had to abort it due to a problem that caused the spacecraft to spin on its axis while orbiting Earth.

Making way for Starship 2. This will be the last flight of the current Starship model. Starting with the seventh flight, SpaceX will use second-generation prototypes with better-designed and positioned forward ailerons, larger fuel tanks, and a new heat shield with improved protective layers, featuring more uniformly installed panels.

Once SpaceX engineers also upgrade the Super Heavy booster to the second generation, Starship 2 will become the first version of the rocket capable of carrying a 100-ton payload, making it officially the most powerful rocket in history.

To Mars in two years, Musk says. Although the 2024 Starship launch series wasn’t as extensive as Musk had hoped, expected reductions in bureaucracy by the incoming Trump Administration promise to accelerate the rocket’s development. Starship has yet to demonstrate its ability to deploy cargo and transfer fuel in orbit.

The SpaceX CEO’s goal is to launch uncrewed flights to Mars in 2026. If Starship’s Mars landing succeeds, Musk’s next, more ambitious goal is to send crewed flights to Mars in 2028. Meanwhile, Starship has other critical missions, such as transporting astronauts to the Moon’s surface for NASA’s Artemis program.

Image | SpaceX

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