The previous test flight of the Starship, which SpaceX also calls simply “Ship”, and the Super Heavy booster resulted in the unprecedented capture of Super Heavy using a pair of metal “wand” arms.

The maneuver, which returned the booster to the same platform from which it was launched, demonstrated its reusability: a key feature that SpaceX says will allow it to reduce launch execution time from months to just a few days, or even a few hours. NASA has estimated Starship will require approximately 15 flights before a variant of the spacecraft’s Human Landing System (HLS) is ready to land astronauts on the moon. This mission, Artemis III, is program for 2026.

The upper stage of the Starship, for its part, carried out a second controlled re-entry and a water landing after to be lost Or explode during its first three test missions.

During Flight 6, SpaceX will again attempt to pluck the Super Heavy from the sky after the booster hurtles toward Earth at supersonic speeds, generating a supersonic boom. Using data from the previous flight, the company said it added redundant hardware to the rocket’s propulsion systems and sped up the propellant unloading process after capture, among other improvements. If the attempt is aborted, the Super Heavy will crash into the Gulf of Mexico.

The upper stage of the Starship will follow the same path as the previous mission. But this time, SpaceX will attempt to perform a space burn with one of its six Raptor engines. The goal is to show how the ship could perform a deorbit burn, which will be necessary before refueling at an orbiting depot for missions to the Moon and, potentially, Mars.

Also unique to Flight 6, SpaceX will remove some heat shield tiles from the ship in locations where “capture-enabled hardware” could be incorporated on future models. The spacecraft will re-enter the atmosphere with a higher angle of attack, putting emphasis on the new configuration to evaluate its performance in subsequent tests.

If Ship launches on November 18, the mission would take place just over a month after Flight 5, by far the quickest turnaround time between Starship flights.

SpaceX has publicly criticized the FAA for the pace of its license modification approval process, to which Administrator Mike Whitaker replied during a hearing, calling the delays “necessary” for safety. The agency also perceived more than $630,000 fine against SpaceX for alleged violations of its previous launch licenses, which CEO Elon Musk has vowed to fight in court.

SpaceX and Musk, who in September said Whitaker, President Joe Biden’s appointee, “should resign,” was showered with praise by President-elect Donald Trump during a post-election speech Wednesday.

A NASA official during a recent interview revealed that the space agency expects SpaceX to demonstrate propellant transfer into orbit using two spacecraft in March, a major step toward Musk’s ambitions to send humans to the Moon – And beyond.