Later this afternoon, SpaceX will make its second attempt to launch its Starship Flight 8 mission from Starbase, Texas. The launch will largely be a repeat of Flight 7, which concluded early before much of its testing could be done. Below is everything SpaceX wanted to test on Flight 7 but will now be testing on Flight 8, plus other tidbits on the launch!
What is Starship?
Starship is SpaceX’s next-generation rocket being built primarily for the company’s goal to send humans and cargo to Mars. SpaceX’s dream is to build a colony on the Martian surface to achieve its mission of “making life multi-planetary.”
However, Starship will also play a big role here on Earth and at the Moon. With it being a fully reusable rocket, meaning both the booster and upper stage can be returned and reused on future flights, Starship can drastically bring the price to launch satellites into space down. Also, NASA has selected SpaceX’s Starship rocket to serve as its Human Landing System for the Artemis Program. While the entire structure of the program is in limbo at the moment, the current plan still has Starship landing the first humans on the lunar surface since Apollo on the Artemis 3 mission.
Starship is still in development
As Flight 7 showed us, the Starship program as a whole is still in development and anything can go wrong for any reason. While the program has been going on for years, the technology and scale of the rocket SpaceX is working with is still ever-changing, and new issues can show up even after a successful mission.
This is exactly why Starship Flight 8 is a repeat of Flight 7’s objectives, as the mission concluded before the ship finished its ascent into space. This meant that, outside of catching Flight 7’s booster, its objectives to continue moving the program forward could not be completed.
Flight 8 could have been Starship’s first orbital launch, but instead it will launch on a suborbital profile to splash down in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX testing new heat shield tech
The ship, or the upper stage, is of a new Block 2 design. Among other things, one of the changes made was to the heat shield. These tiles absorb the heat experienced during the ship’s reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. An important part if SpaceX ever wants to get one back to catch or reuse.
The Block 2 ship also moves the forward flaps backward, removing them from the bulk of the heating and simplifying the heat shielding in this area. Past flights have seen issues of some burn-through in these areas. The change is expected to remedy that.
Past flights have also seen the older tiles fall off. While the new tiles are expected to do that less, to ensure continued safe reentry if that happens, SpaceX installed an ablative material beneath the tiles. So, if one falls off, the ship is still protected.
While this sounds like a perfect system, SpaceX is still testing potential future designs. Metal tiles have returned for more flight testing, and the company has even installed an “actively cooled” set of tiles. It’s unknown exactly how it’s cooled, either having a heat exchanger inside or coolant expelled through small openings in the tile. Either way, it’s cool new technology for future ship designs.
Starship dummy satellites
Starship Flight 8 will see another attempt to deploy the rocket’s first payloads into space. These will be similar in size to Starlink‘s next-generation satellites. The entire deployment system as of now is designed to work with these satellites, featuring a small door and a Pez-like dispenser for deploying them.
There is not an official count, but it is believed to be ten satellites inside Ship 34 (the upper stage for Flight 8). Since the mission will be suborbital, so will the satellites, likely burning up once they reenter the atmosphere.
How to watch Starship Flight 8?
SpaceX exclusively livestreams its launches on X, Elon Musk’s social media platform. The streams are highly produced and are the only place for official Starship launch updates. However, there are a few options available for YouTube livestreams.
The two we’d suggest are from our friends over at NASASpaceflight and Everyday Astronaut. These streams, some of which are already live, will have their own dedicated cameras to capture the launch, as well as using provided stream views from SpaceX.
Another catch attempt and splash down
Booster 15 (the booster for Flight 8) will once again attempt to return to the launch site and be caught by its launch tower’s catch arms. This would make a third successful catch if successful and would further solidify SpaceX’s ability to perform the maneuver.
For Ship 34, it will attempt a simulated catch out in the Indian Ocean. Success for it will be a splashdown in the water where it will tip over and likely break apart on impact. If all goes well, there is a chance SpaceX moves to attempt a Starship catch at Starbase on Flight 9, but that is a big maybe.
What’s next for Starship?
If Flight 8 is a success, SpaceX will likely move to either make an orbital attempt or a ship catch attempt on the next flight. Starship development is extremely fluid, and what the company might want to do before the launch could change afterward.
However, overall, there is still a lot Starship needs to do in its development to become an operational rocket. First, the payload system needs to be designed to work with satellites other than Starlink. Second, NASA really needs a lunar lander for its Artemis Program, although who knows what will happen with that program in the coming months. Finally, SpaceX will need to prove Starship as a reliable and capable rocket before it can truly replace its Falcon 9 sibling. SpaceX hopes to replace all of Falcon 9’s Starlink missions with Starship and eventually retire the rocket in the coming years, but the market that will be the ones to decide when it wants to use Starship over the Falcon.
SpaceX is also looking to speed up Starship development in Florida to hopefully launch its first rocket later this year. While Starbase has been the home of Starship for the last handful of years, long-term plans have the majority of launches coming from Florida, with Starbase moving to become more of an R&D facility for the program.
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