This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Three years after its first test flight, SpaceX's Starship rocket will attempt Monday to enter Earth orbit, a key step in developing the massive launch vehicle for future missions to the moon and Mars. On the heels of its high-profile initial public offering in June, Elon Musk's SpaceX plans to shift into high gear with a 14th test flight featuring ambitious goals.
The test, expected to last about 10 hours, will involve the upper stage of the experimental rocket flying into Earth orbit and deploying 26 next-generation Starlink satellites there—if all goes well. But the launch, scheduled to take place in Texas starting at 7:15 a.m. local time (12:15 p.m. GMT), could hold surprises.
Multiple previous tests have ended in spectacular explosions. After several years of development and testing in Texas, SpaceX began flying the rocket in its full configuration in 2023, deliberately following suborbital trajectories, which are safer and less challenging. Numerous modifications have been made to the black-and-silver behemoth, the largest and most powerful object ever to have flown.
But immense technical challenges remain before Starship—which Musk hopes to make fully reusable—can be considered ready for commercial flights or missions to the moon or Mars. With this new test, SpaceX hopes to usher in an "exciting new phase" of development that will include, among other things, tests of refueling the rocket in orbit. The spacecraft will be launched Monday on a suborbital trajectory and, if all systems are go, then perform a second burn to reach orbit.
"That's the hardest part," requiring "more forces and more complex calculations," explained Kathleen Curlee, a senior analyst at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology. To reach the necessary altitude and speed, "the rocket has to do different things when it's experiencing different levels of gravity," she told AFP. On this flight, SpaceX is aiming for a circular orbit about 275 km (171 miles) above Earth, requiring a speed of about 28,000 km/hour (17,400 miles per hour).
If it achieves that, the spacecraft will then attempt to deploy satellites designed to expand the company's already massive satellite internet constellation. The plan calls for the rocket to finish its journey in the Pacific Ocean after orbiting Earth six times. The huge first-stage booster, called "Super Heavy," will fall into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico shortly after launch.
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