SpaceX will launch the Starship SN9 prototype later today, in what will be the second high-altitude test of the company’s next-gen rocket. You can watch the action live here.
The window for today’s launch is between 1:00 and 7 p.m. EDT (noon to 6 p.m. CST). That said, it is difficult to predict these things, and there is no guarantee that the missile will even take off today. The test vehicle, the Starship SN9 prototype, is launched from the company facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
There doesn’t appear to be an official SpaceX feed for today’s launch, but that doesn’t stop us from seeing this candle lit. We have two live feeds for you, one of them LabPadre and the other of NASASpaceflight.
Not much is known about today’s planned launch, but it appears to be a repeat of the uncrewed launch from December 9, 2020, when SpaceX sent the prototype Starship SN8 to an altitude of 12.5 km. The missile exploded in one giant fireball while trying to hold onto the landing.
That aside, the test seemed to go pretty well, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk describing the test as a “successful climb”. No doubt the data collected at that launch will be used to refine it performed today, in which the missile will again fly to a great height and attempt a landing. A successful test would give the company one get closer to sending an unmanned Starship missile all the way to space.
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Once completed, the 165-foot-high (50-meter) rocket will hopefully deliver cargo and passengers to orbit the Earth, the Moon, Mars and maybe even farther in the solar system. Starship is intended as a hybrid vehicle, performing tasks as an independent missile or as the second stage of a reusable launch system (with a SpaceX Super Heavy as the first stage). Incredibly, the company would like to “catchThe Super Heavy booster with the launch tower arm and possibly relaunch the vehicle an hour later.