offbeat
Hopefully, the rocket won't go in the same direction as the company's share price
SpaceX is scheduling another test flight of its monster Starship rocket later this week. Flight test 13 will carry 20 Starlink satellites and, hopefully, will not repeat the anomalies seen during the previous test.The mission is set to launch on Thursday, July 16, with a 90-minute launch window opening at 2245 UTC. It will carry next-generation Starlink V3 satellites for the first time, deploying them during the vehicle's sub-orbital lob. The plan is for the 20 satellites to extend their solar arrays and antennas, and connect with Starlink's constellation via high-capacity lasers.Six of the satellites will have a suite of cameras to take a look at Starship's heat shield and, according to SpaceX, some of the tiles on the vehicle have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as targets during the test.
Since the satellites will be on the same sub-orbital trajectory as Starship, they will burn up in the atmosphere approximately 20 minutes after deployment.
The previous flight test in May was mostly a success. However, there were problems, notably with the Super Heavy Booster, which failed to perform a "soft" touchdown in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX provided more details on what happened to the booster. "Slight differences in engine startup on the ship caused the directional flip of the booster to be off by approximately 90 degrees," it stated.
