SpaceX is preparing for the 6th flight test of Starship, the reusable super heavy launch vehicle currently in development, scheduled for next Monday the 18th. The 30-minute launch window will open at 4:00 pm CT. The fifth flight test was a key moment in the iteration towards a fully and rapidly reusable launch system. On the first attempt, the Super Heavy booster successfully returned to the launch site, and was captured by the launch and capture tower arms at the Starbase Industrial Complex in Boca Chica, Texas. Starship's upper stage continued to demonstrate several improvements, resulting in a controlled entry and high-precision splashdown in the targeted area in the Indian Ocean.

The objectives of the next flight test include returning the booster to the launch site for capture, reigniting one of the shuttle's Raptor engines in space, conducting heat shield experiments and maneuvering modifications for reentry, and descending the shuttle over the Indian Ocean.

Just the day before yesterday, November 11 (see AVIONEWS), SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched the Koreasat-6A mission into geosynchronous transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This was the 23rd flight of the Falcon 9 first stage in support of this mission, which previously launched: CRS-22, Crew-3, Turksat 5B, Crew-4, CRS-25, Eutelsat Hotbird 13G, O3B mPower, PSN Satria, Telkomsat Marah Putih 2, Galileo L13, and 12 Starlink missions.