SpaceX prepares for 10th test launch of massive Starship rocket
SpaceX is getting ready for the 10th test launch of its massive Starship rocket, the largest type of rocket ever built.
The planned launch, from a SpaceX facility near Boca Chica Beach in Texas, is scheduled to occur during a one-hour window that opens at 7:30 pm ET. The company says it will start a live webcast about 30 minutes before takeoff.
SpaceX wants to put the two-stage rocket’s massive booster through its paces, testing out a series of burns and having it hover over the Gulf of Mexico before ending its flight by dropping down into the water. The rocket’s upper stage, or section, will go on a suborbital flight that will involve an attempt to deploy simulated satellites.
This flight test comes after the multibillion-dollar Starship program has suffered a streak of failures this year. The last flight, in May, saw the rocket lose control. In June, a preflight engine test resulted in a rocket exploding on the launch pad, sending up a dramatic fireball.
The expensive rocket losses are adding up, but SpaceX founder Elon Musk has taken a publicly sanguine stance, posting on social media that “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”
Still, getting Starship to work is important for both NASA and SpaceX. NASA is depending on Starship to be the vehicle that lands astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972, and had been hoping to use it for that purpose as soon as 2027.
Musk founded SpaceX with the goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. He wants Starship to be able to take people to Mars so that they can colonize the red planet. Closer to home, he also wants to use Starship to deploy Starlink satellites.
He and SpaceX are no strangers to having to weather a run of bad test flights when developing a new rocket. SpaceX’s very first rocket, the Falcon 1, suffered three failed launch attempts before finally reaching orbit in 2008.
And even as Starship struggles, SpaceX continues its everyday work in supporting NASA’s missions to the International Space Station. Earlier on Sunday, a robotic SpaceX capsule carrying food and other supplies for the station astronauts successfully lifted off on one of the company’s workhorse Falcon 9 rockets.
Nancy Guthrie search enters its second week as a purported deadline looms
"This is very valuable to us, and we will pay," Savannah Guthrie said in a new video message, seeking to communicate with people who say they're holding her mother.
Immigration courts fast-track hearings for Somali asylum claims
Their lawyers fear the notices are merely the first step toward the removal without due process of Somali asylum applicants in the country.
Ilia Malinin’s Olympic backflip made history. But he’s not the first to do it
U.S. figure skating phenom Ilia Malinin did a backflip in his Olympic debut, and another the next day. The controversial move was banned from competition for decades until 2024.
‘Dizzy’ author recounts a decade of being marooned by chronic illness
Rachel Weaver worked for the Forest Service in Alaska where she scaled towering trees to study nature. But in 2006, she woke up and felt like she was being spun in a hurricane. Her memoir is Dizzy.
Bad Bunny makes Puerto Rico the home team in a vivid Super Bowl halftime show
The star filled his set with hits and familiar images from home, but also expanded his lens to make an argument about the place of Puerto Rico within a larger American context.
Japan’s Takaichi to pursue conservative agenda after election landslide
Japan's first female Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, brought the ruling Liberal Democratic Party its biggest-ever electoral victory, fueling her ambitions to pursue to a political agenda which she says could "split public opinion."
