Next Thursday, SpaceX is expected to launch the largest spacecraft in the world, Starship. Learn about the mission | innovation

SpaceX, the rocket company owned by billionaire Elon Musk, is expected to conduct another test flight of Starship, the world's largest spacecraft, this Thursday (6). Takeoff is scheduled for 9 a.m. (Brasilia time).

This will be SpaceX's fourth attempt at a successful Starship mission. Once again, the cruise will not carry passengers, although the ship is scheduled to carry people in the future.

“The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon,” SpaceX said, referring to the company’s plan to repurpose the spacecraft for other missions.

According to the company, the goal of the practical tests is to obtain as much information as possible to build a transportation system designed to transport people and goods in the future to Earth orbit, the Moon and Mars, for example.

The Starship will be used for cargo flights for the Artemis program, a series of missions NASA plans to return humans to the moon, starting in 2026.

How were the other tests?

In the second, in November 2023, the Super Heavy exploded, but shortly after separating from the ship. At that time, the company also stated that it had lost contact with Starship.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates spaceflight in the country, investigated the incident and reported that SpaceX had determined the need to make 17 corrections to the spacecraft.

The third flight took place in March, when the spacecraft was able to operate for about 50 minutes. The car was also destroyed, however The company considered this test as progress because it had not reached this point in this type of testing.

According to SpaceX, the focus of the fourth flight is to demonstrate the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. “To achieve this, several software and hardware upgrades were made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from the third flight,” the company says.

Once again, SpaceX plans to separate the rocket and spacecraft (also called the capsule) about two minutes after launch from the company's air base in Texas.

If all goes as planned, the capsule should reach Earth's orbit and drop into the Indian Ocean in just over an hour.

Musk detailed the planned phases of the journey. The layout may change, but, in principle, these will be the key moments of the mission:

• 1min02 after launch: The missile reaches “Max Q”, as peak mechanical stress is known;
• 2 minutes 45 minutes: The two stages (the missile and the capsule) separate, and then the missile begins the procedures for ending the flight in the water, in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 8 min 23: The spacecraft's engine is turned off and the ship continues in Earth's orbit.
• 47 minutes and 25 minutes: After orbiting the planet, the ship leaves Earth's orbit and begins returning to the atmosphere;
• 1:05:48: The spacecraft ends its journey with a water landing in the Pacific Ocean.

• Its height is 120 metres (Adding Starship and extra-heavy fuel) It has a diameter of 9 metres
• It can transport up to 100 people
• It is designed to be reusableIn addition to other SpaceX ships
• It has the capacity to transport up to 250 tonsif they can be disposed of after the mission, and 150 tons, when they need to be reused
• It has been tested since 2019but has yet to make a successful landing using the Super Heavy booster
• It will be used to transport cargo in the Artemis programNASA's series of missions to return astronauts to the moon's surface
• In the future, it could be used to transport people and cargo to MarsAccording to SpaceX