Helmed by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, SpaceX has made a name for itself as a leading rocket launch provider. We bring you complete coverage of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launches and landings, as well as SpaceX’s more ambitious exploration goals. That includes flying people around the Moon in the company’s Dragon capsule and starting a human colony on Mars.
No word on why or for how long, but the Starship launch isn’t happening just yet. The flight director announced a hold, which SpaceX’s broadcast previously noted could occur for up to 15 minutes or so; we’ll update once we have more details.
The countdown continues to tick away, and we haven’t heard of any issues that will stop today’s Starship flight test.
On the livestream, the commentators note there is an ability to hold at 40 seconds left, so stay tuned.
No word on any wayward boats or aircraft, and SpaceX seems to think they’ve got the valve issue that scrubbed Monday’s attempt figured out, so we may see the Starship test launch attempt today.
If you’re watching the NASA Spaceflight stream, you’ll see even more exhaust coming from the spacecraft, as its Raptor engines are chilled in preparation for launch.
Elon Musk and SpaceX’s rocket launch plans for the “Starbase” at Boca Chica, TX, have had opposition for quite a while. Still, in light of today’s Starship flight test attempt and the recent FAA license issued, some folks have revisited the possible environmental impact.
Freelance journalist Pablo De La Rosa notes local opposition to the launch, while on Substack, ESG Hound goes into issues with noise and the overall design of the launch site.
ESG Hound:
I still am in shock that a rocket system, the largest in history, will be fired off, from an inadequate facility, in the middle of an endangered species habitat, by a company that revels in the beautiful failure of explosions with seemingly no guardrails and no respect for the real danger this operation presents to the public.
[blog.esghound.com]
As noted by the NASA Spaceflight folks, SpaceX continues to check off items on the pre-launch list, now fueling the Starship prototype itself.
Meanwhile, SpaceX’s official livestream has kicked off with a bit of music before the commentators hop into the stream.
With an hour-plus to go until the Starship launch window opens at 9:28AM ET, you still have time to check out our story and video about the SpaceX superfans who literally moved just to follow the company’s developments in Texas and who have been waiting for (what might happen) today as eagerly as anyone.
It’s 20 minutes long; you’ll still be able to see a rocket spewing smoke on the launchpad when it’s done.
Another alternative to the main video feed for the Starship test launch is SpaceX’s own Mission Control Audio stream. For official communications, first, this is the one you want, however, it comes without visuals and, as the caption mentions, “There may be very long periods of silence.”
If you can’t wait for SpaceX’s official Starship launch attempt live attempt livestream to begin at 8:45AM ET, or you just want an alternate angle on the action, NASA Spaceflight is, as usual, streaming from cameras trained on the launch tower in Texas with commentary of space enthusiasts providing additional context about everything going on.
So far, so good — the two-hour countdown to a possible Starship launch attempt has begun, however, today the weather is a concern as we near the start of the launch window at 9:28AM ET.
According to the Starship flight test mission page, the launch window it’s targeting is from 8:28AM CT (9:28AM ET) to 9:30 AM CT (10:30AM ET).
Yes, that’s 4/20, and no, it’s not a 69-minute window; it’s 62.
You can keep an eye on our stream of updates for any more details as they arrive.
You’ll just need to put down $175 and cross your fingers the torch will actually arrive in Q3 2023. Then it can sit right next to your Boring Company flamethrower.
But according to Elon Musk, another try for the Starship launch will happen in “a few days.”
Elon Musk tweeted that the issue stopping SpaceX’s first Starship orbital test flight is a frozen pressurant valve.
As the SpaceX livestream ended, we were told that it would take about 48 hours to recycle before making another attempt, so we’ll stand down for a couple of days, at least.
SpaceX’s first attempt at launching Starship to orbital velocity won’t happen today after a pressurization issue with the first stage. According to SpaceX’s livestream, today’s proceedings are now a “wet dress rehearsal” with the countdown ending at T-10 seconds.
On the SpaceX livestream for today’s test flight, as the countdown to 9:20AM ET continues, they referenced earlier sub-orbital test flights.
That included the SN8 (below) high-altitude test that ended explosively and drew some attention from the FAA for violating SpaceX’s license before everything was eventually resolved.
Besides the official SpaceX livestream, you can also stay tuned to NASASpaceflight on YouTube. They’re some of those SpaceX fans who stop by to keep an eye on each launch and have their own feed live from near the Texas pad.
The YouTube stream is live for “the world’s most powerful launch vehicle.”
The countdown now says we’re fewer than 40 minutes out from the launch, which is still scheduled to take place at 9:20AM ET. You can get all the watch details and the video feed right here, or stay tuned to our post for updates and the live video feed.
A little under an hour to go before the first Starship launch, which means you have enough time to watch our video (or read our story) about the small community of people who’ve uprooted their lives to live near Starbase in Texas. A huge day for them!
Scheduled liftoff is now: New York: 9:20AM / San Francisco: 6:20AM / London: 2:20PM / Berlin: 3:20PM / Moscow: 4:20PM / New Delhi: 6:50PM / Beijing: 9:20PM / Tokyo: 10:20PM / Melbourne: 11:20PM
The SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter CEO speaking live on Twitter Spaces Sunday night:
“If we get far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong then I think I would consider that to be a success. Just don’t blow up the launchpad... The chances of us triggering an abort and having to postpone the launch are high.”
Your Monday morning plans could include a groundbreaking rocket launch — SpaceX and Elon Musk are ready to attempt a first integrated Starship launch that’s scheduled to take place around 9AM ET.
The countdown’s first check-in should come two hours prior to liftoff, so keep an eye on our stream for any updates to the plans.
It’s been a few years since Elon Musk and SpaceX showed off early designs of Starship and proclaimed it would enable humans to travel to Mars.
You should go back and watch that 2016 reveal, then check out this five-minute CG video SpaceX just posted, again showing the Starship launching, refueling, and reaching an outpost on Mars. The video’s still all renderings and possibilities, but with an orbital flight test for Starship possibly around the corner, it feels a little different.
NASA and SpaceX called off Monday’s launch intended to take the Crew-6 mission to the International Space Station following a last-minute technical issue with Falcon 9’s engine ignition system.
Providing the issue is resolved, the teams will attempt another launch at 12:34AM ET on Thursday, March 2nd.
SpaceX apparently didn’t submit launch collision analysis trajectory data seven days prior to the Starlink Group 4-27 mission’s launch on August 19th, 2022, and the FAA has proposed a $175,000 civil penalty over the matter.
The FAA writes, “Launch collision analysis trajectory data is used to assess the probability of the launch vehicle colliding with one of the thousands of tracked objects orbiting the Earth.” The company has 30 days to respond.
Elon Musk says that only 31 of the 33 engines on SpaceX’s Starship booster actually fired, but the static fire test was still a thing to behold. Despite that, the test went really well otherwise according to the people over at the NASA Spaceflight channel, paving the way towards the ship actually launching.
They should start playing replays soon, so tune in if you want to see some flames.
During an event on Wednesday, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said the company would attempt a 33-engine static fire test today.
Naturally, the folks at NASA Spaceflight have their cameras trained on the test stand in Rocketland / Boca Chica, TX, and the livestream has caught signs that the time of the test is approaching soon.
According to SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, it will happen this year. The company seems to be doing well even though CEO Elon Musk has been distracted by Twitter.
We’ve talked before about how SpaceX is actually run by Gwynne Shotwell and as if to prove it, SpaceX is thriving now that Musk is ignoring it: “When Musk’s focus is elsewhere, there’s some semblance of calm,” writes Loren Grush at Bloomberg.
