Starship Launch Delayed By 24 Hours
The test launch of SpaceX’s Starship, originally scheduled for Friday, has been postponed to Saturday. Company founder Elon Musk cited the need to replace the lattice stabilizer drive as the reason for the 24-hour delay.
A huge 122-m rocket, consisting of the first stage of the Super Heavy accelerator (72 m) and the upper stage and also the Starship spacecraft (50 m), was supposed to take off today at 08:00 local time. This would be her second test flight. The first, on April 20, 2023, ended with a missile exploding in mid-air when things didn’t go according to plan.
Both parts of the rocket are returnable. During the test flight, the first stage and the spacecraft will not be landed softly. The Super Heavy booster will be lowered into the Gulf of Mexico approximately seven minutes after liftoff, and the ship will descend into the Pacific Ocean 90 minutes after reaching orbital altitude. The rotating lattice fin stabilizers on the Super Heavy booster are designed to stabilize and guide the booster to the desired landing point. In the future, the accelerator will be picked up by these fins at the landing site with special crane arms. Thus, the accelerator will return to the cosmodrome for rapid equipment for the next flight.
Following the replacement, all components of the Starship 25 system will be tested ahead of the scheduled November 18 launch within a two-hour window.
