SpaceX ’s Starship rocket on the launchpad at Boca Chica , Texas , in June 2024.SpaceX
SpaceX principal Elon Musksaid on Mondaythat the mighty Starship skyrocket “ is ready to vaporize . ”
The spaceflight company is piercing to post the 120 - meter - tall megarocket on its quaternary trial flight as early as Thursday , June 6 . But to get together that increasingly tight deadline , it ask a flight permit from the Federal Aviation Administration .
SpaceX’s Starship rocket on the launchpad at Boca Chica, Texas, in June 2024.SpaceX
Once received , SpaceX engineers can make last preparations to launch the Starship — comprising the first - stage Super Heavy relay link and upper point spaceship spacecraft — from the company ’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica , Texas .
It ’s from here that the Starship launched on its first three test flights — two of them last year and the most late one in March 2024 .
The first two flights ended in huge explosion just second after liftoff , while the third lasted around 45 minute and attain many of the mission goals rig by SpaceX , including reaching orbit .
SpaceX aver that the quaternary trial flight will focalize on demonstrating the power to return and reuse the Super Heavy and the Starship vehicles by executing a landing burn and flaccid splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster , and accomplish a controlled entryway of Starship over the Indian Ocean . Eventually , both parts of the rocket will give back to base after liftoff , like to how the first stage of the troupe ’s workhorse Falcon 9 skyrocket lands upright back on Edwin Herbert Land or on a barge in the ocean about eight minutes after launching , paving the way for reuse .
“ To accomplish this , several software and ironware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and computer address lessons learned from Flight 3 , ” the companysaid in a poston its site . “ The SpaceX squad will also implement operational changes , including the jettison of the Super Heavy ’s blistering - stage come boostback to reduce booster hoi polloi for the final phase angle of escape . ”
SpaceX is point 8 a.m. ET on Thursday , June 6 , for the next Starship launching . A alive stream of the event will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff . Find out to see the lively streamand what you may await to see .
Once full tested and licensed , the spaceship is expect to transport crew and cargo to the moon as part of NASA ’s Artemis programme . It could also fly the first humans to Mars , though such a bold mission seems unlikely to happen until the 2030s at the earliest .
