The two stages of SpaceX's sixth Starship vehicle are seen at the launch pad ahead of a planned Nov. 18, 2024 launch.(Image credit: SpaceX via X)

SpaceX rolls Starship Flight 6 Super Heavy rocket to pad ahead of Nov. 18 launch (photos)

Starship is scheduled to launch for the sixth time on Monday evening (Nov. 18).

by · Space.com

Both pieces of SpaceX's Starship megarocket have made it to the launch pad ahead of their expected test flight on Monday (Nov. 18).

SpaceX rolled Starship's huge first-stage booster, known as Super Heavy, out to the pad at its Starbase site in South Texas today (Nov. 14). The company documented the move via X, in a post that included three photos. 

One of those images shows Super Heavy atop Starbase's orbital launch mount, with the vehicle's 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage, known as Starship or simply "Ship," sitting nearby. Ship made the trip to the pad on Tuesday (Nov. 12).

SpaceX's sixth Starship Super Heavy booster heads toward the orbital launch mount at the company's Starbase site in South Texas on Nov. 14, 2024.(Image credit: SpaceX via X)

The next major step will be to lift Ship onto Super Heavy, which SpaceX will do using the tower's "chopstick" arms. This will create a nearly 400-foot-tall (122-meter-tall) behemoth, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

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Starship has flown in this fully stacked configuration five times to date, most recently on Oct. 13. That test flight was a success; Super Heavy came back down to Earth for a historic landing atop the launch mount, aided by the chopsticks, and Ship splashed down in the Indian Ocean as planned.

Another look at the sixth Starship Super Heavy booster leaving its hangar, which also houses a few other Super Heavies.(Image credit: SpaceX via X)
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Flight 6, which will launch Monday during a 30-minute window that opens at 5:00 p.m. EST (2100 GMT), will look a lot like Flight 5, if all goes according to plan.

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"The next Starship flight test aims to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online," SpaceX wrote in a mission description. 

"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," the company added.