(Web Desk) - Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket, took to the skies for the fourth time last week, Thursday, June 6. None of the Starship flight tests so far have ended with a rocket retrieval. It was intended this way – though Starship was designed to be fully reusable, SpaceX has built many prototypes to quickly test the spacecraft and push it a little further each time.
Now, SpaceX aims to speed up its development timeline even further. The company is working on upgrading Starfactory, the manufacturing facility at its Starbase launch site in southern Texas. SpaceX aims to eventually produce one Starship rocket per day.
Starfactory: Boosting starship development
Starship’s fourth flight test ticked off a number of key milestones for SpaceX. These include the first soft splashdown of a Super Heavy booster as well as a controlled landing burn for the Starship upper stage.
To do this, Starship had to travel around the Earth and survive hypersonic reentry.
SpaceX has always taken a fail fast, learn fast approach. Though its flight tests can end in explosive fashion, it launches many of them in quick succession, making adjustments to improve the performance every flight.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that SpaceX was working with the FAA to launch Starship as many as nine times this year.
“We have Ships and Super Heavy boosters built and either ready to launch or in testing for the next several flights with more coming off of the production line as SpaceX’s Starfactory continues to grow,” Jessie Anderson, SpaceX’s Falcon Structures Manufacturing Engineering Manager, said during the IFT-4 flight test livestream, as pointed out by Space.com.