Update: SpaceX called off today’s flight test due to a problem with a pressurant valve, holding the countdown clock at T-40 seconds. It said over its livestream that a minimum of 48 hours would be needed before attempting another launch.
SpaceX’s most powerful rocket is set for its inaugural launch.
After years of development, SpaceX’s Starship is scheduled to lift off from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas around 9am east coast time today (Apr. 17). One day, it could send people to the Moon and even Mars, but for now CEO Elon Musk cautioned to set low expectations for the rocket’s first flight test.
“If we get far enough away from the launch pad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the pad,” Musk said during a live Twitter Spaces event on Sunday (Apr. 16), according to a CNN report.
The flight plan for the rocket, which combines a spacecraft atop the Super Heavy rocket booster, is to reach about 150 miles above Earth. The booster is set to splash down off the Gulf of Mexico, while the cruise vessel is targeted to land in the Pacific Ocean about 60 miles (pdf) from the coast of Kauaʻi, Hawaii. The flight is expected to last about 90 minutes in total.
Though Starship is intended to be fully reusable in the future, in the first test neither part is intended to be recovered.
Regardless of how it goes, the rocket’s first test flight marks a milestone for SpaceX and Musk, who announced ambitions for the project as early as 2005, and began development of what was originally called the “BFR” (“Big Falcon Rocket”) in 2012.
Launching the rocket off the ground today would win Starship the title of most powerful rocket ever built, displacing the Soviet Union’s N1 moon rocket.
How can I watch SpaceX’s Starship launch?
A live broadcast will be streamed on SpaceX’s website, and is scheduled to begin about 45 minutes before the launch.
What makes SpaceX’s Starship unique
Starship is made of stainless steel, an unlikely first-choice for building a rocket given its weight. But Musk has gone with the material given it’s cheap, plentiful, and more heat tolerant than carbon steels.
The rocket is also powered by methane, another unorthodox pick for a spacecraft—usually, these rely on liquid hydrogen along with other propellants. Methane’s advantage is that it’s relatively cheap and can also be found in the Martian atmosphere—a factor that may be important to Musk, who has ambitions of one day colonizing Mars.
The anatomy of SpaceX’s Starship, by the digits
394: Starship’s height in feet, with its two components stacked, coming in nearly 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty
150: Starship’s maximum fully reusable payload capacity in metric tons
33: Number of Raptor engines powering Super Heavy
16.7 million: Super Heavy’s maximum thrust in pounds, exceeding the current record of 10 million thrust in pounds produced by the Soviet Union’s N1 rocket, first launched in 1969
100: Number of people Starship could carry to Mars
What happens if the Starship launch fails?
Preparations are still underway for the launch at time of writing, but SpaceX tweeted yesterday (Apr. 16) that its team is looking at potential “wind shear” conditions that could postpone liftoff.
Should that occur, SpaceX has set alternate launch times on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, according to Reuters.
Musk said on Sunday (Apr. 16): “There’s a million ways this rocket could fail. We’re going to be very careful and if we see anything that gives us concern, we’ll postpone.”
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