SpaceX Starship Flight 8: Objectives and Launch Date

Starship Flight 8 will be launching on Thursday, March 6, and SpaceX has shared some objectives and other details about this test mission.

Starship Flight 8 will fly in the same suborbital trajectory as Flight 7, during which it employed a new upper stage, and later it occurred with rapid unscheduled disassembly before completing the burn phase.

This time, the company has added new upgrades to the forward flaps to reduce heat exposure during reentry and protect tilting movement.

The new ship has a redesigned propulsion system with up to 25 percent increase in propellant volume compared to the last generation ship. This added capacity enables the ship to fly for a longer distance and duration.

SpaceX Starship liftoff (Credit – SpaceX)

Starship Flight 8 Objectives

The ship will clear the launch pad and reach the upper atmosphere for hot-staging. The first stage will perform a boostback burn and return to the landing site trajectory. However, it will have to clear landing parameters or it will be disposed in the Gulf of America via splashdown.

Recently, SpaceX has made new upgrades to the launch/catch tower arms and better sensor protection that could have been damaged during liftoff.

On the other hand, the ship will fire its six Raptor engines and continue the test flight into sub-orbit to perform four Starlink simulators deployment. These simulators have the exact size and weight as the next-generation Starlink satellites.

These simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as the ship and will be disposed during entry. The suborbital phase also includes a single Raptor engine relight in space.

At the end of suborbital flight, the ship will reenter Earth’s atmosphere and begin the high heat endurance phase.

The ship’s tiles and inner thermal protection system will be tested as it descends to the Indian Ocean. On its way to the splashdown point, the ship will perform one final burn before sinking in the Ocean.

Interestingly, this test includes several experiments for the ship’s landing on the launch site similar to the booster. If all goes well, we may see the ship’s launch site return with Flight 9.

Starship Flight 8 Launch Date

SpaceX will launch Starship Flight 8 on Monday, March 3, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. CT. This time and date may change based on weather and other launch scenarios.

(source)