Spotted by TechCrunch, the timeline for the anticipated test was revealed in a Spaceflight Now interview with deputy manager for NASA’s Human Landing System program Kent Chojnacki.
First, SpaceX will launch two Starships to low Earth orbit three to four weeks apart.
Weeks later, the second “chaser” rocket will fly up for a rendezvous with its companion, after which the two Starships will dock with each other.
“If you can have a Starship with propellant aggregation, that’s going to be the next step to doing an uncrewed demonstration.”
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It’s also planned to occur sooner than you might imagine.
The tag team.
You guessed it—two Starships are better than one.
By next year, we might witness a pair of the biggest spacecraft in the world working together in a spectacular attempt to refuel one of them in orbit. This would be a significant step in proving that Starship can complete NASA’s Artemis III mission, which will bring humans back to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
The date of the expected test was disclosed in a Spaceflight Now interview with Kent Chojnacki, the deputy manager for NASA’s Human Landing System program, as reported by TechCrunch.
The multi-week watershed test is expected to start in March 2025 and end that summer, according to Chojnacki. However, neither NASA nor SpaceX have made any formal announcements regarding this.
Longshot, Chaser.
The refueling strategy is bold. SpaceX will first send two Starships into low Earth orbit, separated by three to four weeks.
The first spacecraft will be parked above our planet, will need to be gassed up for the demonstration, and will hunker down patiently.
The second “chaser” rocket will fly up to meet its companion a few weeks later, and then the two Starships will dock together. The latecomer will then give the first rocket propellant and undock it after it has been topped off. Both will then deorbit.
Ship-to-ship propellant transfer would be demonstrated at this scale for the first time, Chojnacki said.
“And once you’ve done that, you’ve really cracked open the opportunity to move massive amounts of payload and cargo outside of the Earth’s sphere,” he stated during the interview. In order to conduct an uncrewed demonstration, the next step will be to have a starship with propellant aggregation. “.”.
Light the Way Again.
In the long run, the Human Landing System, a Starship variant, is intended to be the lunar lander that will transport NASA astronauts to the Moon’s surface.
Indeed, SpaceX has made encouraging strides recently with the rocket. In its most recent, fifth orbital flight test, Starship managed to make an absurdly spectacular landing by maneuvering into the “Mechazilla,” the launch tower’s mechanical arms, which captured the rocket in midair.
This demonstrated that, as promised, Starship was well on its way to becoming the reusable launch platform. The Starship’s upper stage will then be used to demonstrate that SpaceX can relight one of its rocket engines in space. This capability will be crucial for the spacecraft’s future controlled reentries into Earth’s atmosphere.
That might happen as early as November 18, according to SpaceX. Hold your eyes open.
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