(CNN) — SpaceX received a launch license authorizing the fourth test flight of Starship, its massive lunar rocket.
When is it and what time?
Starship, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, is expected to lift off on Thursday, during a 120-minute launch window that opens at 8 a.m. ET.
Here we leave you the time for other places in the world:
- Mexico City, Mexico: 6 a.m.
- Bogotá, Colombia: 7 a.m.
- Buenos Aires, Argentina: 9 a.m.
Where to see?
A live stream of the flight test will be available on the SpaceX website about 30 minutes before liftoff.
The vehicle includes the Starship spacecraft on top and a rocket booster known as Super Heavy. It will launch from the company’s private Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, gave SpaceX its approval for the flight test on Tuesday and said the company “met all safety and other licensing requirements for this rocket flight.” proof”.
SpaceX’s Starship is seen at Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 4 ahead of its fourth flight test. Credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
What are you looking for?
SpaceX proposed three scenarios related to Starship’s entry into the atmosphere that would not require an investigation if the vehicle is lost, according to the agency. Those potential setbacks include a failure of a heat shield, some loss of vehicle control in mid-flight and an engine failure during a landing.
“If a different anomaly occurs with the Starship vehicle, an investigation may be warranted, just as if an anomaly occurs with the Super Heavy rocket booster,” the agency said in a statement.
“In addition, the FAA approved the mission profile that included a controlled and uncontrolled entry of the Starship vehicle. “If SpaceX decides to execute an uncontrolled entry, it must communicate that decision to the FAA prior to launch,” according to the statement. “As such, the loss of the Starship vehicle would be considered a planned event and an investigation will not be necessary.”
Each of Starship’s test flights has different objectives that are based on lessons learned and milestones achieved during previous flights.
This time, SpaceX will focus on “demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The main objectives will be to execute a soft landing and splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster and achieve a controlled entry of Starship,” according to a statement shared by the company.
If successful, Starship is expected to land in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX made multiple software and hardware upgrades to the Starship to incorporate lessons learned from the third flight.
“Starship’s fourth flight will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon,” according to SpaceX. “We continue to develop Starship, placing flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible while building a fully reusable transportation system designed to transport crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Three previous test flights
The first two attempts to take Starship to orbital speeds in 2023 ended in explosions, with the spacecraft and booster exploding before reaching their intended landing sites.
SpaceX has been known to accept major setbacks in the early stages of a spacecraft’s development, and says these failures help the company quickly implement design changes that lead to better results.
SpaceX has said its approach to rocket development is geared toward speed. The company uses an engineering method called “rapid spiral development.” Basically, this process boils down to the desire to build prototypes quickly and voluntarily fly them to learn how to build a better one, faster than if the company relied solely on ground testing and simulations.
After Starship’s explosive first and second test flights, the company immediately tried to frame these setbacks as successes.
The nearly hour-long third test flight, conducted in March, achieved several milestones before breaking up upon re-entry, instead of ditching in the Indian Ocean.
Much depends on Starship’s ultimate success. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly characterized the rocket as critical to the company’s founding mission: taking humans to Mars for the first time.
Crucially, the Starship spacecraft is also the vehicle that NASA selected to carry astronauts launched from the United States to the Moon for the first time in more than five decades as part of its Artemis program. The space agency is in a race with China, vying to become the first to develop a permanent lunar outpost and set the precedent for deep space settlements.
