SpaceX’s newly upgraded Starship Version 3 rocket, the largest the company has ever prepared, is ready to take flight Thursday.
All eyes are on the debut flight of Starship V3 — measuring 407-feet tall and outfitted with new features for future missions to the moon and Mars — with the launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. EST.
The rocket will launch from SpaceX’s Starbase headquarters in Texas.
The test launch, the 12th of its kind, comes at a key time as Elon Musk is poised to show off the rocket’s full potential ahead of SpaceX’s initial public offering next month.
Starship V3 may be the final model SpaceX lands on to finally reach orbit and refuel its upper stage midflight, a complex task essential for long-distance missions off Earth.
The massive ship was originally expected to take flight as early as Tuesday, but the launch window was moved back. It will launch using a newly designed pad to show off the next-generation rocket and its Super Heavy thrusters, the company said.
The upgrades have seen the rocket’s Super Heavy boosters and raptor engines upgraded to provide more thrust at liftoff, with a redesigned propulsion system now able to carry more fuel for long-duration missions.
“The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test,” SpaceX said in a statement.
Thursday’s launch comes seven months after SpaceX successfully completed its 11th test flight, which saw the rocket fly halfway across the world while releasing mock satellites.
It marked the second successful test flight after a series of explosions marred the seventh, eighth and ninth missions.