By Jackie Wattles, CNN
(CNN) — SpaceX’s colossal Starship launch system just lifted off on its seventh uncrewed test flight, with an upgraded version of the megarocket embarking on the program’s most ambitious flight to date.
The Starship spacecraft, stacked atop the Super Heavy rocket booster, took flight at 5:37 p.m. ET (4:37 p.m. local time) Thursday. The rocket booster revved up the 33 engines at its base, sending a loud roar across Starbase, the SpaceX launch site near Brownsville, Texas.
For the first time, one of those 33 Raptor engines will have been to space before: SpaceX said it is reusing an engine recovered from the Super Heavy booster flown during the company’s fifth test flight in October.
Next, as the Super Heavy rocket booster — the bottommost section, or first stage, of the Starship system — burns through most of its fuel, SpaceX is expected to attempt to guide the Super Heavy back to a pinpoint landing at the launch site after it separates from the Starship spacecraft.
The Starship spacecraft will ignite its own engines and begin soaring through space.
The company will aim to steer the Super Heavy booster squarely into the “chopsticks,” the metal arms of “Mechazilla,” which is SpaceX’s name for the launch tower that also serves as a structural mechanism for catching rocket parts as they blaze back down from the sky after launch.
SpaceX has only successfully recaptured a Super Heavy booster after launch once before, during the fifth fully integrated Starship test flight in October 2024.
The maneuver sends an earsplitting sonic boom ringing across the landing site, which is in close proximity to the popular Texas tourist destination of South Padre Island.
Path for ‘new generation’ Starship
While the Super Heavy makes its landing attempt, the Starship spacecraft, or upper stage, will continue propelling itself through space, reaching speeds almost fast enough to enter orbit around Earth.
The “new generation” Starship flying on the Thursday mission has some substantial upgrades from previous versions, according to SpaceX. The changes include additional fuel capacity, which could allow Starship’s engines to burn longer and generate more speed.
The vehicle is also equipped with a more powerful flight computer, revamped navigation, and new antennas that SpaceX hopes will allow Starship to better communicate with the company’s space-based internet network, Starlink.
Crucially, SpaceX is also for the first time testing out how the Starship vehicle might deploy satellites. On board the spacecraft are 10 dummy payloads that are roughly the same size and weight as SpaceX’s next generation of Starlink satellites.
About 17 minutes into the mission, SpaceX will deploy the mock satellites as part of a demonstration. Like Starship, the demo payloads are not expected to reach orbit. Rather, they will be on a suborbital trajectory similar to that of Starship, guaranteeing they’ll be discarded in the ocean, according the company.
About one hour after takeoff, the Starship spacecraft is expected to make a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The maneuver is expected to test out how Starship might be recovered after future flights. But as has been the case with the past few test missions, the vehicle will be discarded and left to a watery grave.
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