Following two explosive failed attempts, Elon Musk‘s SpaceX will try to send its £2.4 billion Starship rocket into orbit for the third time today.
Starship – the most powerful rocket ever built – will launch from the firm’s ‘Starbase’ site in Boca Chica, Texas no earlier than 7am local time (midday in the UK).
Although it’s unclear what the targeted altitude is, today’s flight will aim to reach the sort of speeds that get a vehicle into orbit – around 17,500 miles per hour.
About an hour after liftoff, Starship will come back to Earth, landing in the Indian Ocean, where its parts will be recovered for reuse.
Ahead of the launch, Musk tweeted: ‘Starship launch attempt in ~5 hours. Let’s get to Mars.’
SpaceX’s £2.4 billion ($3 billion) Starship – the vehicle that will one day take humans to Mars – is set to attempt an orbital flight for the third time today. Pictured is the rocket on March 13 ready to go at its Starbase facility in Texas
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch on SpaceX’s website and X account.
MailOnline will also be covering the launch live, so make sure you check back in at 12:00 GMT!
If all goes to plan, Musk hopes to fully launch Starship at least nine times this year, with the eventual aim of taking humans to other planets.
SpaceX’s historic launch will act as an early milestone in Musk’s ambition to carry people and cargo to the moon and eventually Mars, making us a ‘multiplanetary’ species.
According to SpaceX, the 110-minute test window for this third Starship launch opens at 7:00 CT (12:00 GMT) on Thursday.
‘As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change,’ it says on its website.
Only on Wednesday did the Federal Aviation Administration grant SpaceX a licence for the launch – without which it couldn’t go ahead.
‘The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy and financial responsibility requirements,’ it said in a post on X.
Musk’s company has had trouble getting FAA approval after its two failed launches, the first of which ended in an explosion over the Gulf of Mexico in April 2023.
It was supposed to travel 90 miles above ground for 90 minutes, but shortly after the Super Heavy booster detached, Starship exploded over the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Texas about four minutes into the mission.
Then in November, SpaceX made its second launch attempt but it failed about eight minutes into the test mission when it reached an altitude of 91 miles above the Earth’s surface before exploding.
SpaceX deemed both missions successes, referring to the first explosion in April as a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.
After the second Starship’s failed launch, the FAA said it wouldn’t authorise SpaceX’s Starship for liftoff without further safety considerations.
From launch to splashdown, the whole even should take about an hour – if successful. This image shows the Starship’s flight path on Thursday
SpaceX has prepared Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster by filling it with more than 10 million pounds of propellent including liquid methane and liquid oxygen
The mega rocket Starship is put in position before a test launch as SpaceX gets ready for their upcoming launch at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, March 13, 2024
Although it’s unclear what the targeted altitude is, today’s flight will aim to reach the sort of speeds that get a vehicle into orbit – around 17,500 miles per hour
Two previous attempts have ended in spectacular explosions, though the company has adopted a rapid trial-and-error approach in order to accelerate development
As the most powerful launch system ever developed, Starship will be able to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights
People gather as SpaceX Starship spacecraft prototype is being transported from the launch site ahead of the SpaceX Starship third flight test. The launch will be sure to draw a crowd on Thursday morning
But even before clearance came from the FFA, SpaceX has prepared Starship (the passenger-carrying section) and the Super Heavy rocket booster by filling it with more than 10 million pounds of propellent including liquid methane and liquid oxygen.
The massive rocket stands 395 feet tall and has 33 Raptor engines that emit 17 million pounds of thrust – the force exerted by the rocket that causes it to blast off.
The force Starship releases at launch is almost doubled Saturn V developed by NASA under the Apollo program in the 1960s.
Once a successful orbital flight is in the bag, SpaceX will focus on launching valuable satellites and other payloads to orbit on Starship.
But ultimately it’s been designed to carry humans – up to 100 of them to Mars ‘or other distant destinations’.
SpaceX isn’t just planning on having one Starship; Musk has also previously said his firm has built a ‘factory for making a lot of these vehicles’.
Ultimately, Musk wants to make human life ‘multiplanetary’ – living on several planets – which could require about 1,000 Starships.
The force Starship releases at launch is almost doubled Saturn V developed by NASA under the Apollo program in the 1960s
Starship is the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, capable of carrying up to 150 metric tonnes fully reusable and 250 metric tonnes expendable
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’
Starship is put in position before a test launch as SpaceX gets ready for the upcoming launch
Earlier this month, SpaceX shared stunning images of Starship launch rehearsal that loaded more than 10 million pounds of propellant on the craft
Starship is key to Musk’s plans to make human beings a ‘multiplanetary species’ – one that lives on other planets as well as Earth
Starbase is a spaceport, production, and development facility for Starship rockets, located at Boca Chica, Texas
Musk thinks a natural or manmade disaster will eventually bring about the end of civilization, necessitating the relocation to another planet – Mars ‘being the only realistic option’.
The Martian surface is not the only destination for Starship, however, as it will be put to use much closer to home.
NASA contracted SpaceX to use Starship for delivering astronauts to the moon as part of the Artemis programme (the successor to the Apollo programme).
A special lunar variant of the vehicle known as Starship HLS (Starship Human Landing System) will transport astronauts from the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit to the surface of the moon and back again, as part of the Artemis 3 mission in 2026.
Musk has previously estimated the total development cost of the Starship project to be between $2 billion (£1.6 billion) and $10 billion (£8 billion).
He later said it would probably be ‘closer to two or three [billion] than it is to 10.’
However, SpaceX chief financial officer Bret Johnsen disclosed last year that SpaceX has invested more than $3 billion into the Starbase facility and Starship systems from July 2014 to May 2023.
