Elon Musk’s next-generation Starship will launch Thursday morning, with the 400-foot reusable rocket hoping to successfully blast off in its third orbital test.
The spacecraft – after spending time on the fog-shrouded platform before dawn – has a launch time of 110 minutes from 8 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (1200 GMT).
Starship’s mission, the most powerful and one of the largest launch vehicles ever built to date, will end with a soft landing of its Booster 10 in the Gulf of Mexico and a splashdown of its Ship 28 in the Indian Ocean.
In-person spectators are now watching live through the nebula near SpaceX’s flight test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, on the Gulf Coast.
A SpaceX spokesperson described the weather as “sea fog” and noted that multiple weather balloons in the Brownsville area are collecting more data ahead of launch, including critical information about the winds along Starship’s flight path.
Elon Musk’s next-generation Starship (above) will launch Thursday morning, with the 400-foot-tall reusable rocket hoping to blast off for its third orbital test. The spaceship, shrouded in a floating fog bank, has a launch time of 110 minutes from 8:00 a.m. Eastern (12:00 GMT)
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX for its third Starship flight on Wednesday morning.
“The FAA has determined that SpaceX meets all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency said in a statement.
The FAA’s “layered environmental assessment” focused on the environmental impacts of Starship’s reentry and landing in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX says it has “significantly expanded” Starship’s fire suppression systems and improved the autonomous systems that should have previously activated the destruction command during the rocket’s previous failed launches.
Beyond the FAA’s recommendations, it also says it has added a “hot stage” separation system connecting the Starship to the Super Heavy Booster, and the launch pad has been reinforced with flame deflectors.
Spaceship is key to SpaceX’s future in providing reusable, affordable space transportation.
Unlike the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the moon, the rocket – boosters and all – is designed to be completely reusable upon return to Earth in an effort to reduce costs.
NASA is counting on Musk’s company to launch rockets that will help it get humans to the moon before China in the modern space race. The clock is ticking a modified spaceship that should be ready for a planned moon landing in 2025.
Together with NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), it will take astronauts to the moon, all according to plan.
SpaceX itself is already heavily involved in the astro business, sending supplies and crew to the International Space Station and returning astronauts to Earth.