After a last-second abort yesterday, SpaceX is back on track to send a prototype of its Starship rocket to a high altitude. You can watch the action live right here.
The window for today’s launch begins around 7:00 a.m. AEDT and ends sharply at 10:00 a.m. AEDT. You can stream SpaceX’s webcast here:
If SpaceX’s stream is not live, you can watch this unofficial livestream from LabPadre, a YouTube channel that casts SpaceX launches in Boca Chica, Texas:
Starship was supposed to go up yesterday, but a Raptor engine auto-abort kicked in with literally one second left in the countdown. This is a test, so there’s no guarantee the prototype, designated SN8, will blast off today from SpaceX’s test site in Boca Chica, Texas. Weather at the launch site looks favourable, as Eric Berger reports at Ars Technica.
Should all go well, the 50.29 m-tall rocket will ascend to a height of 12.5 km and then come back down. During previous tests, prototypes were limited to altitudes of 150 metres.
Unlike other prototypes, SN8 has three Raptor engines, a nose cone, and body flaps for stabilisation. The vehicle will attempt a landing flip manoeuvre, which has never been done with a rocket of this size. Aside from getting this rocket airborne, Space X will monitor the performance of the Raptor engines and assess the vehicle’s aerodynamic capabilities.
Eventually, SpaceX hopes that Starship will be used to deliver cargo and passengers to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.