There is already a date for the last flight of the Megacohete Starship as we know it: v3, heat what you go out

Spacex is ready to move on to the next chapter. Elon Musk’s company has announced the eleventh date Starship test flight: The last launch of the current version of the rocket, which will give way to a new iteration much more powerful. Next Monday, October 13, it could be the day we see the Starship V2 furrow the heavens for the last time.

Starship’s 11 flight is here. As Ha confirmed Spacexthe launch window will open at 18:15 CT (01:15 in the morning of Tuesday 14 during Spanish peninsular schedule). As usual, the company will broadcast the live flight from Starbase through its website and its X profile, starting the broadcast about 30 minutes before takeoff.

This eleventh flight will not be a simple repetition of the previous one (The first successful after a failure streak). In addition to serving as a final brooch for the second version of Starship, it will make a test bench for technologies that will be implemented in the expected V3. Spacex plans to bring both the Super Heavy propeller and the Starship ship with a series of experiments designed to collect data for future releases.

A goodbye in style. Flight 11 will have as its protagonist the Super Heavy 15 propeller, which had already blown successfully during flight 8. 24 of its 33 engines will take off for the second … and last time. For this launch, the Super Heavy will try a new configuration in the landing maneuver.

Instead of the three usual raptor engines, it will turn on five during its final phase, which will be the standard configuration in the Super Heavy V3 for a matter of redundancy. But the objective is not to recover it for the second time with the arms of the tower, but simulate a soft ametering about the Gulf of Mexico to study the dynamics of the vehicle during the complex transitions of off and ignition of landing engines.

Another starship to the limit. The Starship ship has an agenda similar to that of the previous flight. On its suborbital trip, it will deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators and turn one of its engines again in the emptiness of the space, practicing for future orbital insertion maneuvers.

Perhaps the most striking is the stress test to which its thermal shield will be submitted. Spacex has deliberately retired several ceramic tiles, including some critical areas that lack a secondary protection layer, to see how they behave during the reentry. The final trajectory will include a banqueo of the ship to imitate the approach that the future Starship will make when returning to the launch base. The shocking, if everything goes as planned, will be again in the Indian Ocean, in broad daylight.

The generational jump V2 to V3. As he points out Next Spaceflightthis flight will be the last one for Starship version 2 and for the current Starbase launch platform configuration. Spacex prepares to welcome the Starship V3.

The differences between versions are significant. While the V2, with its 123 meters high, can put about 35 tons in low orbit, the V3 will grow slightly to 124.4 meters, firing its useful load capacity up to 100 tons. The thrust at the time of takeoff will also increase from the current 74,400 kilonewtons to more than 80,800 kN. A giant jump that will allow Spacex to display its new generation Starlink network, and then focus on the ultimate goal of getting to Mars.

Image | Spacex

In Xataka | The European space agency wants its own mini-starship. And just given 40 million to an air to design it