SpaceX is preparing for the sixth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket, Starship. The company has adopted a “fail fast, learn fast” approach to research and development, more akin to the world of Silicon Valley than the aerospace industry, and the pace of launches appears to be accelerating.

When is the next flight?

says SpaceX on his website that it aims to conduct Starship’s sixth test flight as early as November 18. This claim is supported by the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen missile launch warning in the area of ​​SpaceX’s launch pads in Boca Chica, Texas. The 30-minute launch window will open at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

It took SpaceX 18 months to complete the first five Starship test flights, with the fifth taking place in mid-October. If the company makes its sixth next week, it will mean just over a month since the last flight – the fastest turnaround to date.

What will SpaceX try on Flight 6?

In many ways, Flight 6 will be a repeat of Flight 5, but with a few key differences.

The first stage will again attempt a “stick” landing back on the launch pad, a tactic designed to eventually allow the booster to be reused multiple times and massively reduce the cost of putting payloads into orbit.

The upper stage will reach space, perform a partial orbit and then re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. But this time, the upper stage will try to reignite one of the Raptor’s engines while in space to collect valuable operational data. It will also test new designs of heat shields during re-entry.

Another difference is that the launch will take place later in the day so that the oceanic landing of the upper stage can be filmed in more detail. Previous missions have seen nocturnal landings, and so the footage—while cinematic and dramatic—didn’t give the engineers as much insight as video of a daytime landing.

What happened during previous releases of Starship?

Test Flight 1 on April 20, 2023 saw three of the 33 first stage engines fail to fire. The rocket later went out of control and self-destructed.

The second test flight on 18 November 2023 went further, gaining enough altitude that the first and second stages separated as planned. The first stage eventually exploded before reaching ground level, and the second stage self-destructed, though not before successfully reaching space.

Test Flight 3 on March 14, 2024 was at least a partial success, as the upper stage reached space again, but failed to return to ground level intact.

The next flight, on June 6, saw the upper stage reach an altitude of over 200 kilometers and travel at over 27,000 kilometers per hour. Both the booster and upper stage completed soft splashdowns in the ocean.

Test Flight 5 was the most ambitious yet, with the Starship’s Super Heavy booster – the rocket’s first stage – falling back onto the launch pad and safely attached to SpaceX’s launch tower, dubbed Mechazilla. It is equipped with a pair of “sticks” to grab the craft at a certain point and secure it, allowing it to be lowered to the ground.