https://spacenews.com/nasa-really-lo...p-test-flight/

NASA “really looking forward” to next Starship test flight

WASHINGTON — As SpaceX prepares for the test flight of its Starship vehicle, NASA is closely watching as it waits for the company to achieve the next milestones on development of the lunar lander version of the vehicle.

SpaceX announced late Oct. 7 that it was preparing to launch Starship on its fifth integrated test flight as soon as Oct. 13, pending regulatory approval. The mission will be similar to the fourth mission in June, with the Starship upper stage flying a suborbital trajectory targeting a splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

A key difference, though, is that the Super Heavy booster will attempt to return the Starbase launch site at Boca Chica, Texas. That would allow the launch tower to “catch” the booster with a pair of mechanical arms and set it down on the launch mount. That is a key element of SpaceX’s long-term plans to enable rapid reuse of the vehicle.

“Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, which will require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a manual command from the mission’s Flight Director,” the company stated. If those conditions are not met, the booster will instead splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaking at an Oct. 9 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX vice president for build and flight reliability, expressed optimism that the booster could make it back for a catch by the launch tower. “We landed with half a centimeter accuracy in the ocean” on the previous flight, he said, “so we think we have a reasonable chance to go back to the tower.”……..

A trifecta…FYI: If everything stays the same, SpaceX Starship IFT-5 and Falcon Heavy Europa Clipper will both launch on Sunday!

IFT-5 = 0700 CT

FH Europa = 1212 ET

Plus the re-entry & splashdown of Dragon with crew-8 from the ISS. Undock at 0305 ET.

Booster and Starship explosives have been installed.

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https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....e4f9c75b4.jpeg

Starship flight 5 vehicles Ship 30 and Booster 12 have been fully stacked for what should be the final time prior to launch. Now at T-minus 44 hrs!

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....46d6331449.png
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SpaceX: Starship stacked ahead of its fifth flight test. We expect regulatory approval in time to fly on October 13

Oh, Boy! This should be a sight to see, especially the "Booster Catch"!

- Ed

Looks like the Europa Falcon Heavy and Crew 8 re-entry have slipped till Monday. Tomorrow a go for IFT5….

The FAA has updated their website, and now it shows 13 October as the primary launch date for Starship Flight 5.

License can come any moment now!

Excitement guaranteed!

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Launch licence covers up to 5 launches per year using the same launch and booster recovery/catch profile.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...671892660.html

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Curious which streams people follow this on - lots of channels with their own footage/commentary to augment the vanilla SpaceX feed; personally I lean towards NASASpacefilght for launches with Scott Manley on YouTube for later analysis and comment. Am I missing anything good?
Edit: YouTube link got borked by the forum

NASASPACEFLIGHT and Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut for me. One on a TV the other on a laptop. Both dip in to the official SpaceX feed when necessary.
NSF are very much like a fan club whereas the EA has more insight and technical information as he does seem to have the ear of Elon Musk. His tours of the SpaceX and Blue Origin factories are a must watch if your into this sort of thing.
I agree about Scott Manley, very well informed and great analysis.
"Fly Safe'👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Not watched Tim for a launch; might give him a go today :) Agree 100% his factory tours are essential viewing.

Bloody hell! 😁

Well that was rather impressive
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/loops/s...mp4?c=original

Goosebumps++

Quite a dynamic approach profile - guess designed to mitigate damage to the tower if things go a bit south.

Successful re-entry of the Starship - accurate enough that the water landing (and explosion as the engine section hit the water) captured by the camera buoys SpaceX had placed at the planned landing spot.

Another flap burn through, but less than the last flight and - again - not terminal.

Best thing about EA is their 4K 120fpm cameras. Awesome footage of stage separation, flip and booster recovery.

That level of accuracy is astonishing. To land next to pre positioned Bouys in the middle of the Pacific!

History in the making. Just for once 'awesome' is the appropriate word.

How/where are they planning to land Ship? Will it grow legs or is there some other plan?

Same deal as booster - chopsticks

No legs, but the first few test ships have solid blocks they can settle on for landings as per SN10*.

At some stage the ships will be fitted with landing blocks below the upper flaps and will be caught in a tower in the same way as the booster. Presumably whichever the current two towers hasn't caught the booster- pending a dedicated tower near the ship turnaround facility?

(Boosters are supposed, eventually, to be able to be turned and launched 2-3 times a day. Ships will need tile repair/replacement as well as loading of their next payloads, whether Starlink satellites or other commercial orbital payloads - and eventually tankers and lunar landers etc.)

*