SpaceX continues preparing its Starship super-heavy booster for launch on its 10th flight test from Launch Complex 1 at Starbase, Texas, on Tuesday, with a one-hour window opening at 6:30 PM CDT. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 26 (UPI) — SpaceX officials are making a third attempt this week to launch its 10th Starship test mission after scrubbing its two prior launches due to weather conditions.
SpaceX scrubbed planned launches due to a technical issue on Sunday and poor weather on Monday that raised the potential for a lightning strike on the super-heavy booster rocket.
Tuesday’s launch is scheduled at 6:30 CDT and will be streamed live online.
Rain is forecast in the greater Brownsville, Texas, area through Wednesday, but the National Weather Service said there only is a 10% chance of rain during Tuesday evening’s launch time.
The NWS reported 12 mph southeasterly winds at 2 p.m. CDT
Starbase is located near the Gulf shore and about 20 miles east of Brownsville.
The SpaceX Starship is the world’s largest rocket and is intended to support eventual Mars missions.
Its ninth test flight in June ended in failure and total destruction on the launch pad when the super-booster rocket exploded during a preflight procedure.
In another incident, SpaceX in March lost contact with the Starship shortly after the launch of its eighth test flight, and the rocket exploded shortly after launch on its seventh test launch earlier this year.
If Tuesday’s launch occurs, SpaceX will undertake multiple landing burn tests, test the booster’s payload deployment and conduct several re-entry experiences aimed at returning the rocket’s upper stage to the launch site, where it will be caught.
SpaceX also will collect the super-heavy booster’s performance data as it flies along a trajectory that ends at an offshore landing point in the Gulf instead of returning to the launch site for a catch.
The booster will undertake a controlled flip after stage separation and then initiate a boostback burn, while using three engine configurations.
SpaceX officials intend to disable one of the booster’s three engines to test its backup engine during a landing burn.
They also will use only two center engines to do an end-of-landing burn, a full hover while above the Gulf’s surface and then a shutdown and drop into the water.
The Starship’s upper stage will undertake several in-space tests, including deploying eight Starlink satellite simulators and relighting a single Raptor engine.