Simply earlier than sundown this night (Nov. 19) on the outskirts of the southernmost city in Texas, SpaceX’s Starship rocket is scheduled to launch on its sixth take a look at flight to area, and you’ll watch it reside on Area.com.
The 2-stage reusable car is the biggest and strongest rocket ever constructed, consisting of the Starship higher stage and its Tremendous Heavy booster. At the moment’s launch, designated Built-in Flight Check-6 (IFT-6), is scheduled to elevate off throughout a 30-minute window that opens at 5:00 p.m. EST (2100 GMT; 4 p.m. native Texas time).
This will likely be SpaceX’s second Starship launch in as many months, having efficiently flown IFT-5 on Oct. 13. At the moment’s launch will largely mirror that almost all current flight, with the return and catch of the Tremendous Heavy booster utilizing the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, and a managed splashdown of Starship within the Indian Ocean.
The livestream for SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 will start half-hour earlier than the opening of the launch window, round 4:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT). SpaceX’s official stream may be discovered by way of the corporate’s X account, which will likely be simulcast on the Area.com YouTube channel, VideoFromSpace. Dwell protection of the launch will even seem on the high of the Area.com homepage.
Associated: SpaceX rolls Starship Flight 6 Tremendous Heavy rocket to pad forward of Nov. 19 launch (pictures)
Constructing on the success of IFT-5, right now’s Starship launch will even try and carry out a boost-back and chopstick arm catch of the Tremendous Heavy booster. The Starship higher stage has new aims not included in its final flight, together with, “reigniting a [Star]ship Raptor engine whereas in area, and testing a set of heatshield experiments and maneuvering modifications for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean,” the corporate wrote in a mission description.
Tremendous Heavy and Starship have been individually transported to the pad at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas final week, the place the 2 have been stacked in preparation for right now’s launch. Mixed, the built-in Starship rocket stands practically 400 toes (122 meters) tall, with a diameter of 30 toes (9 m). As soon as in operation, it’s anticipated that Starship will likely be able to lifting payloads as much as 100 tons to low Earth orbit, and transporting crews to the floor of the moon and Mars.
NASA is relying on that functionality as part of its Artemis program. SpaceX was awarded NASA’s first Human Touchdown Companies contract in 2021, tapping Starship because the lunar lander for Artemis 3, which is able to return NASA astronauts to the floor of the moon for the primary time because the finish of the Apollo missions, in 1972. Artemis 3 is at present scheduled to launch in September 2025.
The area company’s vested curiosity in Starship’s success comes alongside doable delays to each Artemis 3 and its predecessor Artemis 2, which face uncertainty as harm to Orion’s warmth defend on Artemis 1 is below scrutiny from the NASA inspector common.
