SpaceX is set to launch the 12th test flight of its massive Starship spacecraft tonight.
Elon Musk’s aerospace company is preparing to launch Starship during a 90-minute launch window which opens at 5.30pm Central Time (11.30pm BST) – and will be available to watch right here.
SpaceX was within 30 seconds of launching the test flight yesterday when it called off the launch after a number of problems arose with the brand-new pad at Starbase, near the Mexican border.
Musk said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower’s arm in place did not retract, adding that if the problem can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt will be made on Friday.
A SpaceX representative said during the livestream: “New rocket, new pad. We’re learning a lot about these systems as we execute them for the first time and we’re not able to troubleshoot all of these issues in the final seconds to get to launch.”
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Elon Musk said a year ago that he foresaw Starship making its first uncrewed voyage to Mars at the end of 2026.
A successful test flight would help reinforce SpaceX’s case that Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, is nearing commercial readiness after years of explosive setbacks and development delays.
Multiple Starship tankers would be needed to fill one Starship with enough fuel for a moon landing under SpaceX’s proposed moonshot plan.
That is part of a $3 billion-plus contract SpaceX won in 2021 under NASA’s Artemis programme, the US effort to return astronauts to the surface of themoon later this decade for the first time since 1972 at the end of the Apollo era. Those plans put Starship at the centre of the new space race with China.
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The Super Heavy is expected to come down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after blastoff, with Starship’s “exciting landing,” as SpaceX refers to it, is anticipated about an hour later in the Indian Ocean.
Before that landing, plans call for Starship’s payload to release a clutch of 20 Starlink simulators, plus two actual satellites modified to scan the spacecraft’s heat shield and transmit data to operators on the ground during re-entry.
The Super Heavy rocket booster will vault the ship toward space before breaking away. Both booster and spacecraft will be on suborbital trajectories before attempting to make controlled landings in the ocean.
The SpaceX Super Heavy Booster is lifted onto the launch platform(Image: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock)
SpaceX is aiming for the Starship to be a fully reusable system and its test flights are seeking to show this possible.
This is the 12th test flight and there is a lot riding on the progress with NASA possibly using the Starship for a future lunar landing.
The US space agency’s Artemis programme aims to return humans to the Moon, as China forges ahead with a rival effort that’s targeting 2030 for its first crewed mission.
The space race is back on and there is concern in the Trump administration that the US may not get back to the Moon first.
Tim Hanlon
Today21:54 BST
When fully stacked, the Starship craft and Super Heavy booster measure just over 124m and weigh roughly 5,000 metric tonnes, making it larger than Big Ben’s Elizabeth Tower.
The debut flight of the Starship V3 is outfitted with new features designed to support future missions to the moon and Mars.
The Starship rocket is set to launch today(Image: ZUMAPRESS.com / Zuma Press / Avalon)
One of the principal upgrades to the booster rocket is a revamping of its 33 Raptor engines to produce greater thrust from a design that weighs significantly less.
The propulsion system of the upper-stage Starship has similarly been refined for long-duration missions, with mechanisms to allow for ship-to-ship docking, refueling in space and increased maneuverability.
A key measure of success for future test outings will be post-flight recovery of Starship and the Super Heavy booster, which are being developed as reusable vehicles.
SpaceX said it would not attempt to safely land or retrieve either portion of the spacecraft from this launch. But test objectives include execution of several return-flight maneuvers by the booster and Starship itself, including controlled landing burns before each vehicle splashes down at sea.
Tim HanlonToday21:41 BST
Elon Musk is preparing for the launch after announcing one of the biggest stock sales ever by making SpaceX public
A filing shows that his SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year, too.
The prospectus did not put a figure on the amount Musk hopes to raise, but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so. An offering of that size would easily surpass the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that went public seven years ago and raised $26 billion.
SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has said the money will help finance projects to put people on the moon and Mars in its quest to make humans an intergalactic species as they face existential threats that could wipe out civilization.
Elon Musk has announced an IPO for SpaceX(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
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Starship Version 3 – the latest version of the megarocket – stands 407ft tall and has a diameter of roughly 30ft.
“SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond,” Space X says.
“Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, designed to carry more than 100 metric tonnes to orbit in a fully reusable configuration.”
Tim HanlonToday21:33 BST
A live webcast of the 12th flight test will begin about 45 minutes before liftoff and will be available here.
The webcast is scheduled for 10.45pm BST (4.45pm CT). As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and may change, SpaceX says.
Vehicles have been depositing fuel ahead of launch(Image: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock)
SpaceX got within a half-minute of launching its newest and biggest Starship on a test flight Thursday evening before a cascade of problems halted the countdown.
The 407ft (124m) rocket was poised to begin a space-skimming journey from Texas but issues cropped up with the brand-new pad at Starbase near the Mexican border, and the company ran out of time.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk later said the hydraulic pin holding the launch tower’s arm in place did not retract and another attempt will be made today.