Starship Flight 7: SpaceX completes pre-launch rehearsal

SpaceX completed a wet dress rehearsal of its fully stacked Starship rocket Friday, clearing the way for launch this Monday. This mission will set the new record for the largest rocket ever launched, thanks to the slightly taller Block 2 Ship 33 second stage.

Thursday and Friday were full days of work for SpaceX’s employees down in Starbase, Texas. The teams rolled Ship 33 from the manufacturing facility down to the launch site and then stacked it on Booster 14, which was already on the launch mount.

Then SpaceX conducted a wet dress rehearsal for Starship Flight 7, filling both the ship and booster with 11 million pounds of propellant. This is always the final test before SpaceX gives the go-ahead to finish launch preparations.

Saturday morning, SpaceX had already destacked Ship 33 to finish any work needed on it before Monday afternoon’s launch.

For Friday, Flight 7’s Starship was briefly the largest rocket ever assembled, beating its own record by a few meters. This is thanks to the added height of the Block 2 ship, which has larger propellant tanks and redesigned forward flaps.

SpaceX is actually testing a lot on Starship Flight 7; find the ten coolest aspects here.

Monday’s launch will be another big moment for SpaceX as it hopes to incrementally build its Starship program over the year. Flight 7 will feature not just the debut of its Block 2 hardware but also a flight-proven Raptor engine on the booster and ten Starlink satellite simulators in the payload bay.

Each flight provides SpaceX with more flight data on how to better improve the vehicle design and achieve the end goal of a fully reusable rocket that can serve as many markets as possible.

Starship Flight 7 is currently set for Monday at 4:00 P.M. CT, and you’ll find live coverage on SpaceX’s X account starting approximately 35 minutes before liftoff. There is always a good chance SpaceX will delay the mission deeper into its launch window, which lasts several hours. So stay tuned for updates.