SpaceX Starship launch live: Watch megarocket attempt sixth test flight in Texas

SpaceX told reporters that if conditions are not ideal, its Super Heavy booster will default to a trajectory that will force it to land safely in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said the return of the booster to the launch pad will only occur if conditions are suitable to ensure the safety of the public and the SpaceX team.

Ideally, however, this afternoon’s launch will provide valuable data on the details of the ‘stick’s landing on the launch pad.

Musk has said that “thousands of small design changes are also being tested,” although he did not specifically state what those changes are.

But, according to SpaceX itself, the company hopes to further observe and improve the performance of its hardware and software, based on data collected during this test, to “increase structural strength in key areas and shorten the timeline for unloading propellants from the booster.” after a successful catch.’

In its current version, Starship is a two-stage reusable space vehicle and the largest and most powerful rocket ever built.

Musk has boasted that his Starship is now “more than twice as powerful as the Saturn V moon rocket” that launched NASA’s Apollo 4 mission in 1967.

Consistent in starship upper stage and super heavy As a booster, this version of Starship is powered by six engines: three regular ‘Raptor’ engines and three Raptor Vacuum (RVac) engines, custom-built by the SpaceX team for the unique needs of operating in the vacuum of space.

The Super Heavy booster, which will help the spacecraft break free from Earth’s atmosphere, is powered by 33 Raptor engines, 13 in the center and 20 more around the perimeter of the stern or rear end of the booster rocket.

These countless individual boosters are what will explode in a delicate dance to anchor the now-famous “stick” landing of the reusable craft.

Musk has set a tone of epic fantasy for his sixth Starship test launch.

The billionaire tycoon posted a photograph showing a pair of launch scaffolding used to keep the spaceship stable during takeoff, alluding to Tolkien’s second ‘Lord of the Rings’ novel, ‘The Two Towers’.

Tolkien never made it publicly clear which of the five towers in this fantasy novel was directly referenced by his book’s title, and it’s even less clear here what subtext Musk is trying to convey.