“We landed in the ocean with an accuracy of half a centimeter, so we think we have a good chance of returning to the tower,” Gerstenmeyer said.
Launch the playbook
Meanwhile, Starship’s upper stage will ignite six Raptor engines to accelerate it to near orbital speed, providing enough power for the rocket to coast halfway around the globe before plummeting into the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
This is similar to the trajectory Starship flew in June and survived a violent re-entry due to a controlled splashdown. This was the first time SpaceX completed an end-to-end test flight of Starship. Onboard cameras showed pieces of the heat shield falling as Starship reentered the atmosphere, but Starship maintained control, reignited its Raptor engines, and turned from horizontal to vertical. , sank in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia.
After analyzing the results of the June mission, SpaceX engineers decided to rework the heat shield for the next Starship spacecraft. The company said engineers spent more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with new generation tiles, a backup ablation layer and additional protection between the ship’s flap structures.
Sunday’s test flight is expected to take approximately one hour and five minutes from start to finish.
This diagram shows the path the Super Heavy booster will take back to its launch pad in Texas while the Starship upper stage continues its ascent into space.
Credit: SpaceX
Here is a summary of the main events during Sunday’s flight:
• T+00:00:02: lift off
• T+00:01:02: maximum aerodynamic pressure
• T+00:02:33: Super heavy MECO (most engines stopped)
• T+00:02:41: Starship engine stage separation and ignition
• T+00:02:48: Super heavy boost backburn start
• T+00:03:41: Super Heavy Boost Backburn Shutdown
• T+00:03:43: Dumping a hot staging ring
• T+00:06:08: Super heavy is subsonic
• T+00:06:33: Super heavy landing combustion start
• T+00:06:56: Super heavy landing burn shutdown and catch attempt
• T+00:08:27: Spacecraft engine stopped
• T+00:48:03: spaceship re-entry
• T+01:02:34: the spacecraft is transonic
• T+01:03:43: spacecraft is subsonic
• T+01:05:15: spaceship landing flip
• T+01:05:20: spaceship landing combustion
• T+01:05:34: Spaceship landing in the Indian Ocean
SpaceX officials hope the heat shield will remain intact as Starship enters the atmosphere, where temperatures reach 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit (1,430 degrees Celsius). This temperature is hot enough to melt aluminum, the metal used to make many launch vehicles. SpaceX chose stainless steel for Starship because it is resistant to cryogenic temperatures (rockets consume cryogenic fuel and oxidizers) and has a higher melting point than aluminum.
