Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced on X that the sixth test flight of the Starship megarocket would take place on Tuesday. Test flights of the new rocket have been steadily increasing, as Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, told investors the company plans hundreds of Starship rocket launches during President Trump’s second term.
The sixth flight test of Starship is targeted for 1600 Central Time on Tuesday. SpaceX’s next test flight “aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online,” the company wrote in a press release, adding, “Objectives include the booster once again returning to the launch site for catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean.”
Targeting Tuesday, November 19 for Starship’s sixth flight test. A 30-minute launch window opens at 4:00 p.m. CT → https://t.co/oIFc3u9laE pic.twitter.com/s3Rk8TWfen
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2024
Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported that SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell attended an investor event on Friday, where she stated that Starship launches over the next four years could exceed 400.
Shotwell told investors that she hopes the Trump administration and Musk’s government-efficiency commission will help spur innovation across many industries. The current regulation regime pushed by Democrats has been disastrous for this nation, mainly because climate crisis policies result in de-growth and inflation.
“Technology is easy. Physics is easy. People are hard,” Shotwell said, emphasizing, “And regulator people are the hardest.”
A Trump victory also means the era of a rogue Biden-Harris administration weaponizing federal agencies against SpaceX will likely end.
SpaceX has so far conducted five Starship test launches, with test 5 making history…
Starship rocket booster caught by tower pic.twitter.com/aOQmSkt6YE
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 13, 2024
Musk stated months ago that he projects the first Mars mission with Starship will be when the “next Earth-Mars transfer window opens in two years.”
The first Starships to Mars will launch in 2 years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.
These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars. If those landings go well, then the first crewed flights to Mars will be in 4 years.
Flight rate will… https://t.co/ZuiM00dpe9
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2024
The latest valuation placed on SpaceX is around $250 billion, according to a Financial Times report that cited sources who expect the company to offer existing shares around $135 next month.
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