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SpaceX’s next-generation megarocket will launch on a key test flight Thursday morning in a bid to demonstrate new technologies and techniques that will be crucial in future missions to the moon and beyond.
The upcoming launch will be the rocket’s third and most ambitious test flight, according to SpaceX. The event will be closely watched because the nearly 400-foot-tall booster, known as Starship, is expected to play an important role in NASA’s moon return program.
Starship will launch from SpaceX’s Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas. Liftoff is expected at 9:25 a.m. ET, but that timing is tentative and could change depending on the status of the rocket and the weather at the launch site. The 110-minute launch window opened at 8 a.m. ET, but SpaceX adjusted its planned takeoff time as it worked to move ships away from danger in the Gulf of Mexico.
SpaceX said early Thursday that weather conditions were 70% favorable for the test flight, but later added that teams were monitoring the winds.
The launch will be streamed live on the SpaceX website starting around 8:50 a.m. ET.
With this flight, SpaceX hopes to demonstrate that Starship can perform a controlled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere before landing in the Indian Ocean. Before that end, the test also includes several different targets from the rocket’s two previous sorties. SpaceX will attempt to fire one of Starship’s Raptor engines while in space, open and close the vehicle’s payload door, and transfer propellant between two of Starship’s tanks in orbit.
Many of these techniques could help SpaceX carry out future missions to deploy satellites, as well as set the stage for lunar missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program.
Starship was selected by NASA to take astronauts to the lunar surface on the upcoming Artemis III mission, which could launch in 2026.
Starship’s debut flight last April was destructive, ending with the rocket exploding several minutes after liftoff. A second Starship launch in November achieved several milestones, including separation of the first-stage booster known as Super Heavy and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft, but the company ultimately lost contact with the vehicle.