SpaceX moves Super Heavy booster and Ship 35 to the launch pad for Starship Flight 9

SpaceX has moved the super heavy booster and Ship 35 to the launch pad ahead of the historic Starship test flight number 9 scheduled for Tuesday, May 27.

The company has shared visuals of the two stages on transportation vehicles, moving from the Starship factory to Starbase. There, the SpaceX crew is preparing to stack the ship over the super heavy, which may have been completed by the time of writing this article, and Starship Flight 9 may have gone vertical on the launch pad.

This test is super important for SpaceX, as it is looking to redeem the past two upper-stage failures. The root cause of the 8th flight ship’s demise is identified as hardware failure in the center Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition.

The engineers and launch team have been testing the two stages after Flight 8’s launch in early March. SpaceX says that the recent ship loss scenario was different from Flight 7.

In order to address the current issues, the upper stage has been brought to the test site three times for different tests, including 30-second and 60-second durations of engine burns.

Source – SpaceX

After separating from the first stage, the ship will ignite its six Raptor engines to complete the ascent burn. It will approach in-space objectives, including Starlink simulators deployment, which will remain on the same suborbital trajectory as the Starship and vanish upon entry.

The ship will also relight its single Raptor engine in space before making its way back to Earth’s atmosphere. During its descent, the ship will have to endure the high heat and make it through the Indian Ocean for a splashdown after performing a flip maneuver.

SpaceX is also conducting a major experiment with the super heavy booster. For the first time, this Starship program will reuse a booster. This was first employed on Flight 7 and equips 29 out of 33 flights with proven Raptor engines.

However, the company will not attempt a catch to ensure the launch site and public safety. Yet, the goal with this flight is to get the maximum vehicle data to reflect improvements in future missions.

(source)