Abdelrahman
This week, SpaceX’s Starship megarocket is set to take flight once again, contingent on favorable conditions.
The aerospace company is gearing up for the eighth launch of its Starship, recognized as the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed, on Friday, February 28. This announcement was made by Elon Musk via his post on X on February 23.
This fully reusable rocket, standing at an impressive 403.5 feet (123 meters), will launch from Starbase, SpaceX’s facility located in South Texas. Although a specific launch time has yet to be disclosed, viewers can anticipate a live stream of the event, as SpaceX has broadcasted all its previous seven Starship flights.
The latest mission took place on January 16, which was deemed a partial success. During that endeavor, SpaceX successfully retrieved the rocket’s massive first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, using the “chopstick” mechanism on the Starbase launch tower.
However, the second stage of the rocket, referred to as Ship and measuring 171 feet (52 meters), was intended to deploy a payload during this flight — ten mock Starlink satellites designed for SpaceX’s Starlink internet network. These satellites were planned to orbit much of the Earth and subsequently splash down in the Indian Ocean about an hour post-launch. Unfortunately, this did not occur; the upper stage disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean after approximately 8.5 minutes, likely due to a propellant leak.
Starship Flight 7 breaking up and re-entering over Turks and Caicos pic.twitter.com/iuQ0YAy17OJanuary 16, 2025
While SpaceX has not yet disclosed the objectives for Flight 8, they will likely be similar to those previously set for Flight 7.
In the long-term vision, SpaceX intends to capture Ship using the chopsticks technique as well, which would streamline inspections and reusability of the entire vehicle, according to the company’s plans. Musk has indicated that SpaceX aims to achieve this milestone in early 2025, although it seems unlikely for this to occur during Flight 8, especially after the complications experienced during Flight 7.
