Elon Musk’s company prepares to launch Starship spacecraft into Earth’s orbit for first timepublished at 12:28 BST
12:28 BST
Image source, Reuters
Elon Musk’s company SpaceX is preparing to launch its Starship spacecraft into Earth’s orbit for the first time.
It marks the spacecraft’s 14th flight. Previous tests were suborbital – a flight where the spacecraft reaches space, but does not travel fast enough or long enough to stay there.
The rocket splits in two shortly after take off – the booster, which is the bottom half, will fall back to Earth roughly seven minutes after launch, landing in the Gulf of Mexico.
During the 10-hour flight, Starship will aim to complete roughly six orbits of Earth and deploy Starlink V3 satellites, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Chile.
Musk hopes to revolutionise space travel by eventually making Starship the world’s first fully-reusable launch vehicle.
He also hopes the spacecraft will one day carry crew to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Today, it is uncrewed.
Previous test flights haven’t all been smooth sailing with several incidents in 2025, including the rocket exploding into a giant fireball on its stand in June. Recent tests have been more successful.
The launch window opens at 07:15 local time, with a current target for lift off at 07:46 (13:46 BST), at the Starbase in Texas – you can watch live here.