SpaceX is about to attempt its seventh Starship rocket launch
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SpaceXs next big launch is here. On Thursday at 5:37PM ET, Elon Musks space company will attempt to launch Starship for its 7th test flight from Boca Chica, Texas. You can watch the livestream from SpaceXs YouTube channel, on X, or its website.At 403 feet tall, Starship is the biggest launch vehicle ever. Its made up of two parts: the Starship spacecraft, which is designed to carry crew and cargo into orbit, and the Super Heavy Booster, which comes with 33 SpaceX Raptor engines that help propel Starship into space. Both the Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster are reusable.Last year, SpaceXs launch tower successfully caught its Super Heavy following launch. The company will once again attempt to catch the booster with the launch towers chopstick arms.During its seventh test flight, Starship will attempt to deploy 10 Starlink simulators for the first time. These mock satellites are the same size and weight as Starlinks actual internet satellites, but they wont stay in space. Instead, theyll follow the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to demise upon entry.Starship also features major improvementsto reliability and performance this time around, making the vehicle slightly taller, according to SpaceX. Along with a redesigned propulsion system and an improved flight computer, Starship will debut a new heat shield with latest generation tiles and a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.
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