Topline
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is poised to launch its massive Starship rocket for the fourth time on Thursday, in hopes to perfect a reusable rocket that will make space cheaper to access, exploit and even visit.
Key Facts
SpaceX said it plans to launch Starship and its Super Heavy booster on Thursday, June 6, having secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA determined SpaceX’s last Starship test, which ended in flames, posed no safety risks to the public, allowing the company to launch another test before it completes an investigation into what happened.
SpaceX said the two-hour test launch window will open at 7 a.m. Central Time (8 a.m. ET, 5 a.m. PT), though urged people to follow it on social media for updates as such schedules are typically “dynamic and likely to change.”
Elon Musk said SpaceX is targeting a 7:20 a.m. launch, “Texas time.”
A live webcast of the launch will begin around 30 minutes before liftoff, which Musk said will be streamed exclusively on X on the company’s channel, @SpaceX.
SpaceX said the mission will “fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight” and will shift focus from achieving orbit to “demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy,” including opening and closing the payload door in space for the first time and executing its first reentry from space.
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Why Is Spacex’s Fourth Starship Test Important?
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever developed and stands at around 400 feet tall. It is a key component to Elon Musk and SpaceX’s ambition of ferrying cargo, and eventually humans, to the moon, Mars and beyond and the rocket is slated to play a key role in NASA’s plans to return American astronauts to the moon. Core to achieving this vision, and the broader development of the space economy, is reusability. Historically, space has largely been the purview of wealthy nation states as it is so prohibitively expensive to get there, largely due to the fact rockets have been used as a disposable resource. Musk’s SpaceX is at the forefront of changing this and has already seen success in this area with its smaller rockets and is hoping to replicate this with Starship, which SpaceX has said will one day be able to “carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights,” help deliver satellites and enable “the development of a moon base.” While each of the three previous Starship tests have ended in flames or crashes — the first damaged the launch pad when it exploded seconds after launch, the second blew up shortly after separation, which the company described as “a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” and the third crashed into the Indian Ocean — the company has hailed them successes and improved the rocket based on what it learnt. “The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon,” SpaceX said. “We’re continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible as we build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Crucial Quote
The main goal of the fourth Starship test flight is “getting through max reentry heating,” Musk said on X, formerly Twitter. The billionaire said it is “worth noting that no one has ever succeeded in creating a fully reusable heat shield.” Musk said developing a “reusable orbital return heat shield,” technology vital to protect the rocket when it returns to Earth through the atmosphere, has never been done before and is SpaceX’s “biggest remaining problem.” Musk said that with “extreme effort,” SpaceX could bring Starship reusability to around 100%.
Tangent
For around a decade, SpaceX has been in competition with Boeing to develop a space taxi service for astronauts as NASA works to build out the industry and boost its options for getting people into space. Though SpaceX has been regularly shuttling astronauts for NASA and other organizations into space for years, Boeing has endured years of delays and struggles. On Wednesday, it finally launched its first crewed test of its Starliner rocket, which is carrying two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.
