This Week In Space: Starship Flight 6 is likely one week away

SpaceX is making its quickest turnaround yet for the Starship rocket, hopefully launching some five weeks after Flight 5. This mission will have more big milestones for the company while other companies still work towards competing with its older Falcon 9 rocket.

This week’s launches

• November 11 (Monday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Koreasat 6A | 12:07 P.M. EST
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-69 | 4:02 P.M. EST
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 13 (Wednesday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-68 | 6:00 A.M. EST
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
  • CASC | Long March 4C | Unknown Payload | 5:50 P.M. EST
    • LC-9, Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-11 | 8:21 P.M. PST
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• November 16 (Saturday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-66 | 1:04 P.M. EST
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 17 (Sunday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Optus-X | 4:29 P.M. EST
    • LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

In the news

Former President Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris for the race to become the next President. President Trump’s return to the White House will have broad implications for NASA and America’s space program. [Space Explored]

Rocket Lab is bidding its Neutron rocket for Space Force’s NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 contracts. The company hopes to have its medium-lift rocket ready for flight by December 2025 to meet the contract’s requirements. Lane 1 contracts accept more risk in exchange for cheaper and faster access to space. Currently, the only approved Lane 1 launchers are SpaceX, ULA, and Blue Origin. [SpaceNews]

Relativity is reportedly running low on cash and is having issues raising more capital. The commercial launcher abandoned its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket for the larger Terran R, which could compete with SpaceX. However, its launch isn’t expected until 2026, and current market conditions haven’t been favorable to launchers looking for more money. (Examples: Astra Space and Virgin Orbit) [Bloomberg]

China is once again copying SpaceX and redesigning its Long March 9 Moon rocket to be fully reusable with a Starship-like second stage. The rocket is key to China’s plans to land one of its astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. [Ars Technica]

SpaceX launch coming next week

SpaceX plans to attempt Starship Flight 6 no earlier than November 18, a week from today. The mission will perform a repeat trajectory from Flight 5, catching the booster, ditching the hot stage ring in the Gulf of Mexico, and performing a controlled reentry and splashdown in the Indian Ocean for the second stage.

This less than two-month turnaround for launch differs greatly from previous missions that required months-long reviews by the FAA. This change is because Starship Flight 5 didn’t trigger a mishap investigation and wasn’t tied to the FAA for another launch license approval as no major changes to the trajectory were made.

Flight 6 will have a few new changes to Starship, most in places we’ll never see, like software and hardware reinforcements. However, Flight 6 will also attempt the relight of a Raptor engine in space for the first time once again.

This was originally planned to take place on an earlier mission but was scrapped while in flight. A relight of an engine in space is a key milestone to allow Starship to enter orbit around Earth in a future flight.

Starbase is still buzzing with activity. SpaceX is still building a formal office building and Starship factory, called Starfactory. Also, the construction of the second launch tower is still well underway and will likely take a few more months.

Will we ever see Virgin Galactic fly again?

Virgin Galactic is hoping to secure $300 million to speed up the development of its Delta-class spaceplanes and second-generation Mothership carrier aircraft. The company has been quiet, busy manufacturing the new vehicles since June.

While the company sounds confident it will be just fine with its current cash stockpile to complete its Delta spaceplanes and return to commercial service by 2026, the ability to increase its production cadence and get to commercial service faster is too enticing to pass up.

The overall health of the company is strong, unlike its sister company Virgin Orbit that folded last year, however, I’m sure the company’s larger stockholders wouldn’t mind some faster-paced action to reduce the fear of becoming obsolete or being passed up by its competitor Blue Origin.