The Gulfstream V aircraft will image the SpaceX vehicle’s re-entry and peak-heating events as it crosses the horizon and splashes down in the eastern Indian Ocean.
The seventh flight of Starship is speculated to take place as early as this Friday and teams hope to once again attempt a ‘chopstick’-style catch of the booster, last seen on the fifth mission.
Registered N95NA, or NASA5, the aircraft touched down at Brisbane Airport on Monday before flying out to Perth today ahead of the blast-off.
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“Hosting a NASA jet wasn’t on our bingo card for 2025, but you never know what will turn up at Brisbane Airport,” said airport spokesperson Peter Doherty.
The mission was detailed in a letter to the FAA by Brett A. Pugsley, a chief of flight operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre.
In it, he requested exemptions to lighting requirements for test flights over the Gulf of Mexico and Southwest Texas to calibrate necessary sensors.
“Due to the sensitivity of the imaging equipment, it is necessary to reduce all exterior and interior lighting to a minimum to calibrate the onboard sensors and collect imagery during the re-entry event scheduled for January 2025,” he wrote.
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“NASA5 is equipped with TCAS and ADS-B and will be under ATC control during lightless operations to minimize safety of flight risks. Crew will monitor TCAS, the applicable ATC frequency and maintain a visual lookout while conducting lightless operations in the NOTAM’d airspace.
“The aircraft’s lights status would be communicated to the applicable Air Traffic Control Center before and after the lights out operation.
“CASA’s International Operations division has advised that an exemption from the FAA would be honoured by CASA for NASA5 to conduct the mission rehearsal and mission events under Melbourne Oceanic Centre’s control and international waters.
“The data collected is essential in understanding space vehicle performance, formulating design improvement, and ultimately making future reusable space vehicles safer for humanity’s ongoing quest to explore the cosmos and advance scientific discovery.”
Starship is the collective name for the SpaceX Super Heavy booster rocket and Starship spacecraft, destined to fly humans to Mars one day.
Testing began in April 2023 when the spacecraft failed to reach orbit but culminated in an incredible “chopstick”-style catch of its Super Heavy booster in October, effectively making it reusable. A sixth test in November was watched by President-elect Donald Trump.
It comes after Space Connect reported this week how SpaceX would test new sensors that will make future chopstick-style catches “pinch” Starship more accurately when it lands.
The upgrade is one of several for the upcoming seventh test mission, which also includes redesigns to the propulsion system and heat shield.
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