SpaceX ready to launch big Starship rocket Friday morning
SpaceX plans to make its second attempt early Friday to launch its huge and reusable Starship rocket into space. The rocket is 394 feet tall compared to the Saturn 5 rocket at 363 feet tall, and it is the foundation of the new space company’s plans to open exploration of the moon and then Mars.
To watch, go to the SpaceX website. The company’s webcast starts at 6:30 a.m. CST, which is approximately when the 33 engines on the lowest stage begin cool down before ignition. The launch window opens at 7 a.m. CST and a water spray will signal the launch is seconds away. That spray is designed to protect the launch pad infrastructure.
The rocket will be lifting off from the company’s south Texas launch facility called Starbase. A first attempt from that location showed Starship’s potential and early problems. It blasted a crater into the launch pad and left the ground sending concrete and dust into the sky that fell on the surrounding area.
The Starship didn’t perform as planned after launch, either, and SpaceX blew it up four minutes after liftoff when the stages didn’t separate. The same basic plan – launch and separation – is the plan for Friday.
If this rocket succeeds – most space observers would say “when” it eventually succeeds – SpaceX will have a powerful tool to support commercial and government launches to the moon and beyond.
SpaceX is owned by billionaire businessman Elon Musk. He is the founder, chairman, CEO and chief technology officer. He is also CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and the owner of X (formerly Twitter). He’s widely known, admired and sometimes controversial. This week, Musk made news agreeing with a post on X that Jewish communities push “hatred against whites.” Musk said from his personal account, “You have said the actual truth.”
Musk said later he does not believe “all Jewish communities” hate white people but that the Anti-Defamation League “unjustly attacks the majority of the West” despite that majority’s support of Jewish people and Israel. “I’m against antisemitism,” he said in a podcast with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.