The twelfth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch Friday, May 22. The 90-minute launch window will open at 5:30 p.m. CT. Yesterdays, attempt was cancelled because the launch tower had a pin that did not retract.
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 45 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to check in here and stay tuned to our X account for updates.
The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.
Read about the upgrades debuting on Starship, Super Heavy, Raptor, and the launch pad on Flight 12.
The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Could never dream of this when I was a young man.
Incredible.
How long until complete reusability for StarShip? It’s close now, right?
And maybe a decade until 2-hour intercontinental shuttle flights for humans?
And orbiting space hotels?
And humanoid robots maintaining my home as I age?
I am grateful Elon migrated to the U.S.
Keep pushing the future, SpaceXAI/Tesla…
Unfortunately, I’d seen something on the internet that suggested yesterday’s flight had been scrubbed, and so was off doing something else when it had a fabulously successful flight.
And it was fabulously successful. Not 100%; It’s clear that some of the heat shielding needs work as yet, by the time the reentry heating was over you could see a bit of damage. Not, “Wow, how did it reach ground intact?” levels of damage, just “That would need some refurbishing before flying again” levels. And refurbishing between flights is not the intent.
And the new booster needs work. But it got the job done before failing.
But Starship is absolutely fit to carry payload on future test flights! And that alone makes it more cost effective than Falcon, already the most cost effective rocket flying. Future tests can be a revenue source or neutral, not a revenue sink.