SpaceX is counting down to today's 11th flight test of its monster Starship rocket, with weather looking suitable for the opening of the launch window at 18:15 CT (or around 17:00 CT, if the company's billionaire boss is to be believed).
If all goes according to plan, the launch will mark the final hurrah for version two of the Starship system and the end of the road for the launchpad where the rocket is currently sitting.
The pad has seen plenty of action over the years, notably being partially destroyed during the first attempt to launch the complete system (with a Super Heavy Booster) in 2023. In 2024, the pad's tower made a historic first catch of a returning Super Heavy booster.
However, 2025 represents the end for this iteration of the launch pad. A second pad will be used to launch the first of the Block Three Starships in 2026.
It isn't only Starship that SpaceX is attempting to launch today. At 20:08 EDT, the company intends to launch a batch of 24 satellites for Amazon's Project Kuiper.
The launch, if successful, will bring the total number of Kuiper spacecraft launched to 153.
It will be the third launch for Project Kuiper on a SpaceX rocket. Three Atlas V rockets have also been used to loft batches of the satellites.
Deployment is expected to take place at an altitude of 289 miles (465 kilometers) above Earth. After the spacecraft have been checked out, controllers will raise their orbit to 392 miles (630 kilometers), where they will be fully commissioned as part of the operational satellite constellation.
The mission profile will build on the last launch, which was a much-needed success for SpaceX after back-to-back failures (including one where the rocket exploded before lift-off).
The Super Heavy booster being used previously saw action on flight 8 and will include 24 flight-proven Raptor engines. There are no plans to attempt another catch – instead, the booster will be sent into the Gulf of Mexico after demonstrating a landing burn engine profile to be used on the next generation of booster.
The plan is to use 13 engines at the start of the landing phase, then transition to five engines for the divert phase, demonstrating additional redundancy. The booster will subsequently transition to three engines and hover above the surface of the ocean before eventually splashing down into the water.
For the upper stage, the plan is to repeat the no unexpected explosions SpaceX demonstrated on the last flight. Eight Starlink simulators will be deployed during the vehicle's suborbital lob (and so will also be on a suborbital trajectory), and SpaceX intends to attempt to relight one of the Raptor engines. The other notable change will be in how the vehicle heads back to a planned splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The company plans to test subsonic guidance algorithms and attempt a dynamic braking maneuver.
According to SpaceX, the launch window will open tonight at 1815 CT. Boss Elon Musk said on his social media platform that it would be "~5pm CT."
And it wouldn't be like Musk to say something was going to happen earlier than it actually did, would it? ®
Source: The register