SpaceX Starship to launch fake satellites for first time

SpaceX’s most ambitious Starship flight yet will see an upsized version of the rocket, the deployment of 10 fake satellites, reused hardware and another attempt to catch the booster with “chopsticks”.

SpaceX’s seventh Starship test flight will be the most ambitious to date, and the first involving a new “block 2” version with significant upgrades.

The most obvious difference on Starship Version 2, or Block 2, is with the vehicle’s forward flaps. Engineers redesigned the flaps, reducing their size and repositioning them closer to the tip of the ship's nose to better protect them from the scorching heat of reentry.

The ship’s propellant tanks have 25% more volume than previous iterations of the vehicle.

Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, a little more than 17 minutes into the flight, Starship will deploy 10 dummy payloads similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites. This will test the ability of the system to carry payloads to orbit.

In another first, one of the 33 Raptor engines that will fly on this Super Heavy booster was recovered from the booster that launched and returned to Starbase in October. For SpaceX, this is a step toward eventually flying the entire rocket repeatedly.

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