SpaceX’s Big Starship Upgrade For Rocket Tower Catch Spotted – Mars Mission In 2026, Says Musk – Wccftech
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SpaceX will fly its Starship rocket to Mars next year, according to Elon Musk, who shared earlier today that his firm will not miss a Mars transfer window from now on. Musk’s company is developing the Starship rocket in Texas, and it conducted the rocket’s seventh test flight in January. Starship Flight 7 saw SpaceX fly the second-generation upper-stage rocket, which unexpectedly exploded soon after liftoff. A Mars transfer window occurs every two years, and after last year’s window in November, SpaceX will have the next opportunity to go to the Red Planet in late 2026.SpaceX has been busy this February with its Starship tests. It has static fired the Super Heavy booster and the upper stage spacecraft, with the latter’s test taking place earlier this week. The ship’s static fire was a rare one that saw SpaceX light up the rocket’s engines for a minute as part of an extended test run. The rocket’s propellant system appeared to be the point of failure during Flight 7, after an engine bay fire led to its destruction during flight with debris raining down over the Caribbean.According to SpaceX, the ship’s static fire involved all six of its engines and tested different power configurations to mimic conditions Starship went through during flight. However, while the two rockets have been static fired, it appears unlikely that Flight 8 will fly this month.This is because, according to SpaceX, the upper-stage static fire test will “inform upgrades to the ship’s hardware and flight profile” before the ship can fly on Flight 8.One key upgrade that will fly on either Flight 8 or future ships is catch hardware. SpaceX has now successfully caught the Super Heavy booster with the launch tower twice, and it aims to catch the ship with the tower in the future.The Starship ship, which flew on Flight 7, included catch hardware to verify its design for future missions. Now, fresh footage from local media shows this hardware for the first time on a ship that will presumably fly Starship Flight 10.SpaceX manufactures its Starship rockets in stages and then stacks them on top of each other inside mega bays. Footage from local media shows the an upper stage ship’s nosecone section and payload bay emerging from SpaceX’s Starfactory in Texas.At the bottom of the nose cone, two pins similar to those on the Super Heavy booster are present. In future tests SpaceX should use these to balance the rocket on the launch tower for a catch attempt.Unlike the Super Heavy booster, the upper stage Starship has to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere before it can return to the tower. As a result, any catch hardware has to be strategically placed to ensure that it is not damaged during reentry.Additionally, since the tower has to catch Starship at the top section to prevent it from tipping over post catch, the catch hardware has to be placed close to the heat shield tiles which makes it important for SpaceX to test multiple regions of the heat shield for any vulnerabilities.As SpaceX races to complete its Flight 7 learnings and fly Flight 8, Elon Musk is certain that his firm will not miss future Mars launch windows. Planetary orbital motion means that Earth and Mars align every two years to reduce the distance between the planets, and in an X post Musk asserted that “There will be no wasted launch window,” indicating that Starship can fly to Mars in late 2026 to ‘catch’ the next window.S36 nosecone and payload section has rolled out of Starfactory, and she’s prepped for catching! pic.twitter.com/BMjJVNKZUR— LabPadre Space (@LabPadre) February 12, 2025Some posts on wccftech.com may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC
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