After a long wait, SpaceX has finally received permission to launch the third test flight of the Starship, the most powerful rocket ever to have flown.
This means that SpaceX can proceed with its originally stated plan to launch the Starship — comprising the first-stage Super Heavy booster and the upper-stage Starship spacecraft — on Thursday, March 14. Digital Trends has all the information you need to watch a live stream of what promises to be a spectacular event.
To whip up some extra excitement ahead of launch, SpaceX has shared a cinematic trailer for the mission. You can watch it below:
Following an investigation into the Starship’s second test flight in which the rocket exploded in midair a few minutes after liftoff, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was giving SpaceX the green light to proceed with another launch attempt on Thursday.
“The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental, policy, and financial responsibility requirements,” the agency said in a post on social media on Wednesday.
If the first two launches of the Starship are anything to go by, then Thursday’s liftoff from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas should be a mind-blowing spectacle. The rocket packs a record 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, making it considerably more powerful than any rocket that’s gone before.
The first two launch attempts, in April and November last year, failed minutes into flight, but the SpaceX team has taken what it learned from the missions and improved the rocket’s design.
Besides getting the Starship spacecraft to orbit for the first time, SpaceX said it’s also aiming to push the envelope during Thursday’s flight by achieving a number of goals that include the “successful ascent burn of both stages, opening and closing Starship’s payload door, a propellant transfer demonstration during the upper stage’s coast phase, the first ever re-light of a Raptor engine while in space, and a controlled reentry of Starship.”
Once fully tested, the Starship spaceflight system will be used to transport crew and cargo to the moon, Mars, and possibly beyond.
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