Terminal Count: SpaceX is ready for Starship Flight 6

Welcome to Terminal Count, the official weekly rundown of spaceflight news by Space Explored. This week, the story is once again about SpaceX and its Starship rocket. The company is gearing up for not just its sixth flight, but also for three other Falcon 9 launches this week.

This week’s launches

• November 18 (Monday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | GSAT-20 | 1:31 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
• November 19 (Tuesday)
  • SpaceX | Starship | Flight 6 | 4:00 P.M. CT
    • OLM-1, Starbase, Texas
  • Rocket Lab | HASTE | Leidos Mission 2 | 7:45 P.M. ET
    • LC-2, Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia
• November 21 (Thursday)
  • Roscosmos | Soyuz 2.1a | Progress MS-29 | 7:22 A.M. ET
    • Site 31/6, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 6-66 | 10:53 A.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-13 | 8:13 P.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• November 22 (Friday)
  • Rocket Lab | Electron | Ice AIS Baby | 10:49 P.M. ET
    • LC-1, Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand

In the news…

ABL Space Systems is pivoting to become a missile defense contractor, stepping back from the commercial launch market it hoped to compete in. The company completed a round of layoffs to refocus after it was determined its RS1 launch vehicle wasn’t going to compete against SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and others. [Payload]

AST SpaceMobile signed a multi-launch deal with Blue Origin to launch the bulk of its Block 2 satellites into orbit. While the company has contracts with India and SpaceX, New Glenn’s larger payload fairing will allow AST to launch as many as eight Block 2 Bluebird direct-to-cell satellites at a time. [Space Explored]

Intuitive Machines is planning its next lunar landing mission to take place in February 2025, according to the CEO during its recent earnings call. The company’s last attempt was a semi-success, surviving the landing but ending up on its side. [Payload]

Australian launch startup Gilmour Space Technologies received the green light to launch from Australia later this year. This will be the first launch from the Australian mainland since the UK’s Black Arrow launch in 1971. [ABC]

SpaceX ready to fly Starship Flight 6

The SpaceX teams are set and ready for the sixth Starship flight, which will take place no earlier than Tuesday, November 19, at 4:00 P.M. CT. The company conducted a wet dress rehearsal on Saturday, the last of the tests done before launch.

The final preparations were the arming of the flight termination system; this was also completed over the weekend. The only thing left for SpaceX to do is launch the rocket.

Starship Flight 6 will launch only a handful of weeks after Flight 5’s launch and completed the first-ever catch of an orbital rocket (not like anyone else was trying). Flight 6 hopes to repeat all of that while adding in some iterative tests.

The most important test will be conducting an in-space ignition of a Raptor engine. This will allow the rocket to maneuver in space for future missions, but more importantly, to deorbit itself once those missions are complete. No one wants a massive spacecraft designed to survive reentry in space, but with no way to control where it lands.

Rocket Lab signs first Neutron launch contract

Rocket Lab announced during an earnings call that it has signed its first launch contract for Neutron. Neither the company nor the price has been shared, but it was stated that the price is within the range of the expected $50-$55 million price tag.

Neutron is Rocket Lab’s medium-lift launch vehicle still under development. It plans to conduct the first Neutron launch as soon as late 2025 to qualify for launch contracts through the Space Force’s National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 program.

Peter Beck, Rocket Lab CEO, stated in the past that signing launch contracts before you have a rocket ready to fly was “basically worthless.” If Beck still believes in this ideology about early launch contracts, it must mean Rocket Lab is serious about getting Neutron ready for its debut in 2025 as it must now have a launch vehicle ready to bid for launches.