SpaceX is not subsidizing rocket launches, Musk says – Shares biggest risk for fourth Starship test

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Ahead of Starship’s long-awaited fourth test flight, currently slated for a June 5 attempt, SpaceX chief Elon Musk has dismissed claims that his firm is subsidizing part of the journey and other missions with its Falcon rockets. 9. SpaceX came into the media spotlight after an interview given by the CEO of a rival firm, saw the executive claim that SpaceX is undercutting competition in the industry by selling rocket launches below cost.

Musk’s comments also mentioned a key problem with Starship, which could cause the second stage to miss test targets during the upcoming IFT-4.

Elon Musk says flight tests are key to making Starship reusable

Starship’s third test flight, which took place earlier this year, stunned onlookers as the second-stage spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere. During atmospheric reentry, the rocket became engulfed in a bright red plasma that surrounds any vehicle entering the atmosphere. Courtesy of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet services, viewers were treated to high-definition plasma views.

However, the supply was cut off soon after, and SpaceX later confirmed that it had lost the shuttle during re-entry. The full Starship crew, made from the Starship second stage assembled into the Super Heavy booster, is the world’s largest rocket and has seen SpaceX project the second stage heat shield from the ground.

This heat shield is made up of thousands of plates manufactured at SpaceX facilities. These plates have been one of the most troublesome components of the rocket. Local media footage from SpaceX’s facilities in Texas has seen plates regularly fall off the rocket while it’s stationary, and some Starship test launches have also seen them shift during liftoff.

While he did not go into detail about the costs of the launch portion of the Falcon 9’s journey, Musk rejected claims that SpaceX was running them at a loss. 2024 has been the strongest year for Falcon 9 launches on record, as SpaceX has launched 56 missions so far. According to Musk, “none of the reshared missions lost money“, to the best of his knowledge, implying that SpaceX is not subsidizing the ride and other missions.

The rest of his comments focused on the Starship’s heat shield. In addition to being the world’s largest rocket, Starship is also the world’s first rocket with a fully reusable second stage. Unlike the Falcon 9, this means SpaceX doesn’t have to build a new second stage (and engine) for every launch, and according to Musk, “the biggest remaining problem“Making the Starship fully reusable is the heat shield.

this will “throw a few punches in the can to settle“, the executive believes, and will also require SpaceX to create an entirely new supply chain to produce inexpensive components. A major obstacle in designing the reusable heat shield is its weight, Musk says. At the moment, SpaceX does not is “ not resilient to the loss of a single plate in most locations, as the secondary retention material will probably not survive,” Musk described.

A key aspect of designing a heat shield is running situations to discover its weak points. These are regions where atmospheric reentry forces behave in unexpected ways and can cause carbonation. The first SpaceX Crew Dragon launch in 2020 saw the company discover unforeseen heat shield damage. Furthermore, Starship is not the first spacecraft for which SpaceX has investigated reusable heat shields as a SpaceX executive shared similar plans for Dragon in 2021.

“SpaceX”it will only reveal the weak points by flying“, Musk underlined, and his remarks dovetail with the firm’s goals for the Starship 4 test flight. A key objective of the Starship IFT-4 test will be “controlled re-entry to the Starship” and for this to execute flawlessly, the heat shield will have to withstand whatever the atmosphere throws at it.