Watch live as SpaceX tries again to fly its Starship to great heights for the first time
[embedded content]
SpaceX’s Starship prototype is set to take it’s first high-altitude flight – to around 40,000 feet or so – sometime this afternoon. This is the second time that it’s been poised to make this giant leap, after a try yesterday was aborted in the final seconds due to one of the Raptor engines automatically shutting down to potentially prevent an even worse ending to the test.
The spacecraft is one of the latest prototypes of Starship that SpaceX has built, and the first that will try for this high-flying demonstration. Other prototypes have climbed to a maximum of around 500 feet, after which they completed a controlled landing, too. This one will try that as well, provided it gets that far, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that it’s very likely something will go wrong with this test – which is fully within expectations at this stage in the spacecraft’s development.
The rocket is launching from SpaceX’s development facility in Texas, and will fly to its apogee height of 40,000 feet before executing (again, hopefully) what is essentially a belly flop maneuver to turn around and then fall back to Earth, before ultimately performing a controlled landing to come to rest vertically. All theoretical, but that’s how it would go if everything went perfectly.
We could get a spectacularly different result, which would still help SpaceX immensely in their development of Starship by providing valuable data. The exact timing of the test flight isn’t yet known, so stay tuned above – the window officially closes at 6 PM EST today, so it’ll have to happen before that it if it’s going to happen.
[embedded content] SpaceX’s Starship prototype is set to take it’s first high-altitude flight – to around 40,000 feet or so – sometime this afternoon. This is the second time that it’s been poised to make this giant leap, after a try yesterday was aborted in the final seconds due to…
Recent Posts
- ICYMI: the week’s 7 biggest tech stories, from Netflix enraging users to the Rabbit R1 disappointing all of us
- Samsung’s archrival strikes crucial partnership with Nvidia’s closest ally to deliver key next-gen memory — SK Hynix teams up with TSMC to advance HBM development but could this move encourage TSMC to become like Intel?
- As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages
- Microsoft needs some time to ‘refine’ updates for Copilot AI in Windows
- Sony Xperia 1 VI leak reveals new camera app and more features borrowed from Alpha cameras
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011