By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Elon Musk’s SpaceX said on Friday its upcoming Starship test flight would include the rocket’s first attempt to deploy payloads in space by releasing 10 model Starlink satellites, a key demonstration for Starship’s potential in the satellite launch market.
“While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission,” SpaceX said in a blog post on its website.
The Starship flight from SpaceX’s sprawling Boca Chica, Texas facilities, tentatively planned for later this month, will mark the seventh demonstration in a test-to-failure style of rocket development where the company tests new upgrades with each flight.
In October, Starship’s “Super Heavy” first stage booster returned to its launch pad’s giant mechanical arms for the first time, a milestone for its fully reusable design.
The rocket’s sixth test flight in November, attended by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, achieved similar mission objectives – besides the landing of Super Heavy, which was forced to target a water landing on the Gulf of Mexico because of a launchpad problem.
Starship is the centerpiece of SpaceX’s future satellite launch business – an area it currently dominates with its partially reusable Falcon 9 – as well as Musk’s dreams to colonize Mars.
The rocket’s power, stronger than the Saturn V rocket that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon in the last century, is key for launching huge batches of satellites into low-Earth orbit and is expected to rapidly expand the company’s Starlink satellite internet network.
SpaceX is under contract with NASA to land U.S. astronauts on the moon later this decade using Starship.
Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, has become a close ally of Trump who has made getting to Mars a more prominent goal for the incoming administration.