This article has been updated to reflect the new Saturday launch date. Ground teams need the extra time to replace a grid fin actuator on the booster.
With an FAA launch license in hand, SpaceX is set for the second test flight of a fully integrated Starship rocket. Success or failure, it’s guaranteed to be a visual spectacle. Here’s how you’ll be able to take in the action.
The 20-minute launch window opens at 8:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, November 18, with the rocket blasting off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The two-stage rocket lasted for approximately six minutes during its first test flight on April 20, with a failed stage separation forcing ground controllers to issue a self-destruct command with the vehicle above the Gulf of Mexico.
You can watch a live webcast of the flight test at SpaceX’s website or at SpaceX’s official X channel. A number of third-party providers will also be setting up livestreams, which we will add here as they become available.
For the second test flight of Starship, SpaceX will test its new water-cooled steel flame deflector, a new electronic thrust vector control system for the booster Raptor engines (to steer the vehicle during flight), and a new hot-staging approach, in which the Starship upper stage engines will ignite prior to stage separation. Over a thousand different modifications were made in preparation for the rocket’s second flight test.
Should all go well, Booster 9 will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, while the upper stage Ship 25 will do the same in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. Starship won’t be going orbital for this flight, with the mission not lasting any longer than 90 minutes.
At 400 feet tall, and exerting some 16 million pounds of thrust, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. SpaceX is banking on this rocket, but so too are NASA and other industry partners. Hopefully, progress will be made, with SpaceX taking the necessary steps to move this ambitious project forward.
