US space company SpaceX has announced major upgrades to the latest prototype of its spacecraft, the Starship, which is expected to conduct a test flight soon, possibly as early as Friday. This will mark the spacecraft's seventh test flight.

“The vehicle’s forward flaps have been reduced in size and shifted towards the tip of the vehicle and away from the heat shield, significantly reducing their exposure to reentry heating while simplifying the underlying mechanisms and protective tiling,” reported the company.

“Redesigns to the propulsion system, including a 25% increase in propellant volume, the vacuum jacketing of feedlines, a new fuel feedline system for the vehicle’s Raptor vacuum engines, and an improved propulsion avionics module controlling vehicle valves and reading sensors, all add additional vehicle performance and the ability to fly longer missions. The ship’s heat shield will also use the latest generation tiles and includes a backup layer to protect from missing or damaged tiles.”

Further, the Starship’s avionics system has been completely redesigned, providing greater capabilities and redundancy to support more complex future missions. These will include the ship returning to its launch site (a feat the Starship has yet to achieve) and propellant transfer. In terms of hardware, the avionics upgrade includes a more powerful flight computer, and the fitting of integrated antennas, each of which will be able to communicate with Starlink communications satellites, global satellite navigation systems, and backup radio frequency systems. The spacecraft has also been fitted with redesigned star tracking sensors and inertial navigation systems.

The Starship now features integrated smart batteries and power units capable of distributing both data and 2.7 MW of power around the ship to 24 high-voltage actuators.

Moreover, it was been equipped with even more onboard cameras, taking the total to more than 30. These cameras will give engineers the ability to monitor the performance of the vehicle’s hardware, while it is in flight. Using Starlink, the Starship will be able to stream more than 120 Mbps of high-definition video and telemetry, in real-time, during every phase of the flight.

“While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission,” affirmed SpaceX.

“The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned. The flight test will include several experiments focused on ship return to launch site and catch. On Starship’s upper stage, a significant number of tiles will be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry. On the sides of the vehicle, non-structural versions of ship catch fittings are installed to test the fittings’ thermal performance, along with a smoothed and tapered edge of the tile line to address hot spots observed during reentry on Starship’s sixth flight test.”

The company pointed out that the reentry profile for the upcoming seventh test flight had been adopted precisely to impose maximum stress on the vehicle’s flaps, at the point where it would experience maximum entry dynamic pressure.