SpaceX is on track to have the most powerful space-worthy rocket in history, a vehicle soon expected to outperform NASA's mega moon rocket, which flew its maiden voyage in 2022.
The aerospace company, founded by Elon Musk, is laser-focused on bringing Starship into operational use. Since April 2023, SpaceX has launched five test flights of the skyscraping rocket and spacecraft. Though the first three ended prematurely in explosions, the fourth, in June, ended without anything blowing up, and the fifth, in October, even succeeded in returning the colossal booster to the launch pad, a crucial step toward reusability.
During the upcoming sixth test flight, Starship flight controllers will once again attempt to send back the booster for capture and have a controlled splash down of the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean.
These tests are a critical demonstration of hardware for NASA, which is depending on Starship to get humans back on the moon in the next few years. And, if successful, it'll mean Musk is one small step closer to realizing his personal dream of building a city on Mars.
The billionaire business magnate has oversold timelines in the past. Here's what we know so far about when SpaceX will try to fly this.
What is the SpaceX Starship?
Starship is a super-heavy-lift rocket and spacecraft, built to carry immense cargo and numerous astronauts into deep space.
The 400-foot vehicle looms over NASA's rocket, the Space Launch System. It would take about five billboards stacked on top of the space agency's mega rocket to be as tall as Starship. SpaceX estimates its rocket also has about twice as much thrust.
The rocket is made of stainless steel, a material Musk is particularly fond of due to its relatively low price. Unlike NASA's SLS, which flies on super-chilled liquid hydrogen and oxygen, this beast is fueled with 10 million pounds of liquid methane and oxygen. The new fuel can be stored at more manageable temperatures than liquid hydrogen, meaning it doesn't need as much insulation and is less prone to leaks, a problem that often stymies NASA launches.
Starship is intended to eventually evolve into a fully reusable launch and landing system, designed for trips to the moon, Mars, and perhaps other destinations. Its intended reusability is "the holy grail of space," Musk said at a company event in 2022, because it will make spaceflight more affordable to the average person.
"Full reusability has been an elusive goal throughout the history of spaceflight, piling innumerable technical challenges on what is already the most difficult engineering pursuit in human existence," according to SpaceX. "It is rocket science, on ludicrous mode."
"It is rocket science, on ludicrous mode."
How will NASA use Starship?
NASA plans to use Starship to land astronauts on the moon during Artemis III and IV, two upcoming missions which could come as early as 2026 and 2028, respectively.
The space agency has tapped SpaceX to develop a human landing system version of Starship with a $4 billion contract. As part of the deal, the company will need to demonstrate an uncrewed test flight to the moon beforehand.
During Artemis III, Starship is expected to transport astronauts from NASA's Orion spacecraft to the lunar south pole and back. It would be the first human moon-landing since 1972. The space agency also has promised the mission will see a woman and person of color walk on the moon for the first time. In the fourth Artemis mission, Starship might dock at a moon-orbiting space station, the yet-to-be-commissioned Gateway, and ferry astronauts back and forth to the moon from there.
NASA announced in January it was pushing back Artemis III at least a year to 2026, in large part because of Starship's lag in progress. For the SpaceX spacecraft to reach the moon, it will need to refuel in low-Earth orbit from a space tanker, something never done before.
NASA's confidence in Starship has ebbed and flowed over the past two years. During an Artemis news conference in August 2023, the space agency's Jim Free, then associate administrator of exploration systems, told reporters NASA would consider changing the Artemis III mission goals if slips in SpaceX's schedule persisted.
When is Starship's next launch?
SpaceX is targeting as early as Nov. 18 for its sixth orbital test flight. The half-hour launch window opens at 5 p.m. ET (or 4 p.m. local Starbase time), though the time and date could change. The company must first get license approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.
This test will attempt to repeat many of the objectives achieved in the last test. Starship will once again try to send back the booster for mid-air capture with the launch tower's so-called "chopsticks" and have a controlled splash down of the spacecraft in the Indian Ocean. The switch to an afternoon liftoff should enable the ship to reenter the atmosphere in daylight.
This time flight controllers will try to reignite an engine in space and run several heatshield experiments. The ship also will fly at a steeper angle in the final phase, "purposefully stressing the limits of flap control" to collect data on various future landing scenarios. The whole journey should last little more than one hour.
"Learnings from this and subsequent flight tests will continue to make the entire Starship system more reliable," according to SpaceX.
What happened to Starship during its previous test flights?
The company has already flown five Starships. The first three exploded, but the last two survived.
The rocket first launched on April 20, 2023, exploding 24 miles above the Gulf of Mexico about four minutes later. The rocket didn't separate from its colossal booster, which had caught fire from leaking fuel, and flipped as it fell in the air back toward Earth. The self-destruct system was commanded for both the booster and ship after several of the engines didn’t fire, though aerodynamic pressure ultimately caused the ship to break apart.
During the second test on Nov. 18, 2023, Starship reached space but not orbit, exploding about eight minutes into the flight. In that test, the rocket demonstrated a new method of separating the booster from the spacecraft in the air, known as "hot-staging."?
Then on March 14, the ship reached orbital speed and demonstrated a first step toward being able to refuel in space, transferring several tons of liquid oxygen between internal tanks. In June, Starship survived the maximum heat of reentering Earth's atmosphere and performed a key flip and landing burn before hitting the Indian Ocean.
In its latest fifth flight on Oct. 13, the rocket defied expectations by successfully sending the booster back to the launch pad, where it was caught mid-air with mechanical launch tower arms, on its very first try. The flight ended with a controlled splash down in the water, just as planned.
Where will Starship launch?
Perhaps surprisingly, Starship won't lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where most space fans are accustomed to watching historically significant launches.
Instead, it will take off from Boca Chica, Texas, at SpaceX's own spaceport, known as Starbase. Eventually, the company will launch the rocket from a site under construction in the outer perimeter of the famous Florida pad that shot Apollo 11 to the moon.
"Their plan is that they're going to do a few test flights there" in South Texas, NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. "Once they have the confidence, they will bring the missions to the Cape."
How can I watch the Starship launch?
If you're not on the list to get onto SpaceX's private Starbase but in the South Texas area, you could try viewing the flight test from a public beach on South Padre Island, such as Cameron County Amphitheater at Isla Blanca Park or Port Isabel. Locals are known to host watch parties.
For viewers at home, SpaceX will start a live broadcast of the countdown about a half-hour before liftoff. The launch window is 5 to 5:30 p.m. ET. The livestream feed will be available on SpaceX's website, and updates will be posted on X, the social platform also owned by Musk.
How likely is Starship to succeed?
Well, rocket science is hard.
After the first flight test, Kate Tice, a quality systems engineering manager for the company, said Starship's clearing of the launch tower was the team's main hope. Prior to the second flight, Tice again managed public expectations, saying there was "a good chance" the booster would incur damage.
"Each of these flight tests continue to be just that: a test," SpaceX said on its website in March. "They aren’t occurring in a lab or on a test stand, but are putting flight hardware in a flight environment to maximize learning."
Administrator Nelson has congratulated SpaceX on the team's bold efforts, stating that great achievements through history have demanded "some level of calculated risk."
As Starship has spent more time in flight, its track record has improved — thus, explosions should become less frequent. Though the company has faced criticism for previous test failures, its executives insist that building fast, breaking expensive things, and learning from mistakes are part of SpaceX's philosophy — a departure from NASA's slower and more conservative pace.
"Development moves really fast here at SpaceX," Tice said earlier this year.
What is SpaceX's plan for Mars?
The SpaceX founder's ultimate vision is to use a fleet of Starships to send 1 million humans to Mars by 2050.
To be clear, Musk doesn't just want to establish a place for people to visit but a self-sustaining city. He imagines that, with a bit of warming, humans could restore a thick atmosphere and oceans on Mars, making it a more hospitable environment, even able to grow crops.
"There's a fundamental juncture in the history of really any civilization on a single planet, which is, do you get to the second planet, or do you not?" Musk told the National Academies in 2021. "I propose we do, and I think we should as soon as possible."
"There's a fundamental juncture in the history of really any civilization on a single planet, which is, do you get to the second planet, or do you not?"
The ship would be spacious enough for 100 passengers, along with their luggage, plus the materials to build homes, businesses, rocket fuel stations, and iron foundries.
The journey getting there would be long, Musk said, but Starship would have entertainment, such as zero-gravity games, movies, lectures, and a restaurant.
"It can't feel cramped or boring," he said at the International Astronautical Congress in 2016, in Guadalajara, Mexico. "It'll be really fun to go. You'll have a great time."
UPDATE: Nov. 8, 2024, 5:43 PM EST A version of this article was originally published on Feb. 4, 2023. It has been updated periodically since then to reflect new information in Starship's launch campaign.
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