Image: SpaceX
Posted on 01/10/2025 6:28:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
SpaceX has delayed the launch of its seventh Starship rocket to Monday, January 13. Little details were shared about the delay, which was first announced by Elon Musk during a Diablo stream on X.
SpaceX officially delayed the flight of Starship Flight 7 on Wednesday morning in a post on X, stating it will now launch no earlier than January 13. SpaceX teams were also keeping an eye on the weather for pre-launch operations.
This likely means the delays were due to poor launch weather on launch day this weekend, and the teams are hoping for better weather earlier next week...
Musk shared that "Starship Flight 7 looks like it pushed three or four days."
...Starship Flight 7 will be another suborbital flight by SpaceX to further test its Starship vehicle design. This time, the flight will feature a Block 2 Starship upper stage with redesigned forward flaps, new avionics, larger fuel tanks, and a new heat shield. Inside the payload will be Starlink satellite simulators that are expected to be deployed while in space and re-enter with the ship.
SpaceX is also hoping to catch its Starship booster again using the launch tower arms, like it did on Flight 5.
In 2025, SpaceX is attempting to get Starship nearly operational with orbital missions, deployment of actual working payloads (likely full-scale Starlink V2 satellites), and potentially reusing hardware. Flight 7 will also begin the last item with its booster reflying Raptor engines that first flew on Flight 5.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceexplored.com ...
Why can’t the stranded Boeing astronauts return sooner than March or is it just inconvenient to bring them home sooner?
(no more 'flying spaghetti monster')Raptor 3 is pictured with its predecessors. Image: SpaceX/X
They *might* have survived the reentry aboard the Boeing thing they rode up there, but temp in the cabin was dangerous. Boeing and NASA were lucky the craft made the return trip.
Procedure is to always have one craft available as a life raft of sorts, in case of major ISS failures.
There were two people in rotation to come down who were ahead of them. Had procedure not been followed, they'd have returned home (already delayed) but the remaining crews would have been up there with no way out.
They've got enough groceries for six months or something, and there's way to put cargo up there.
Thanks to SpaceX, it's all getting handled, we're blessed to have Musk and his companies.
G'night all.
Good night, thank you for all your hard work.
My pleasure.
Stay tuned because I think it's gonna launch.
I was looking forward to more or less simultaneous Big Booster launches, alas, not to be.
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Thanks!
EA is my favorite source, more or less, because he gets the info on the spot, whatever the spot happens to be. He goes long sometimes, but it used to be ALL the time, and that has changed, much to my relief. His longer ones are by necessity long, such as Bezos giving him a one-on-one tour of the BO facility, or Elon Musk giving him a one-on-one tour of the Texas facility. He'd been selected for the "Hello Moon" trip around the Moon paid for by a Japanese billionaire, but that was overtakenb y events -- the Starship development took long enough that the billionaire doesn't have the money now. :^)
SpaceX's latest Starship vehicle, which has been often referred to as Starship V2, is a MASSIVE upgrade over what has flown to date. Here's a quick overview of what's new and what's different!What's new with Flight 7's massively upgraded Starship?!? | 7:11
Everyday Astronaut | 1.8M subscribers | 171,231 views | January 12, 2025
Also, a tower 'chop sticks' catch of the booster is planned if all systems are a go..
[4K] Watch SpaceX Try To Catch Starship’s Super Heavy Booster!
Everyday Astronaut
1.81M subscribers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Px_b5eSzsA
Bummer. Booster ran flawlessly, catch went perfectly, but by that time the Starship had apparently gone kablooey.
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