SpaceX prepares for fifth Starship flight

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Flight discussion happened here

The FAA confirmed that there is no incident investigation after the fourth flight as both ship and booster flew their nominal mission. SpaceX could launch another mission with the same profile as soon as they are ready.

It's possible they'll try to catch the booster with IFT-5. Getting that approved will take some time.

SpaceX is exchanging the way the heat shield tiles are attached to ship 30. Future Starships will have their flaps a bit farther to the back, reducing the control authority but also reducing heat loads.

 

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Slow motion of a six Raptor static fire (the ship being prepared for the fifth flight):



Link in case the embedding doesn't work.

 

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Looks like the fifth flight won't happen before late November.

• because the ship isn't ready - it is
• because the booster isn't ready - it is
• because the launch pad isn't ready - it is
• because they are still working on landing tests - everything is ready
• because there are safety concerns about the landing process - resolved
• because there is too much mercury in the deluge water - made up by CNBC
• because a steel ring will crash into the ocean at a slightly different position compared to the previous flight
• because the radius where the sonic boom is audible might be slightly larger than previously approved

It's a simple, inert structural steel ring between booster and ship that gets discarded after staging and boostback burn and crashes into the ocean. It doesn't affect any life in the ocean unless it directly hits something on impact. And that was already approved - the fifth flight just changes the impact location a bit. That delays the launch by at least two months.

Unsurprisingly, SpaceX isn't happy.