Starship launch - live: SpaceX delays crucial test of Musk’s Mars ambitions
Elon Musk plans to use world’s biggest rocket to colonise Mars
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Your support makes all the difference.SpaceX is set to launch its Starship craft on Thursday, 16 January, after weather delayed its critical test of the world’s biggest rocket.
The 123-metre-tall rocket, which Elon Musk hopes to use to colonise Mars, was scheduled to lift off from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas at 4pm local time (10pm GMT) on Wednesday, with Starship featuring several major upgrades for its seventh flight test.
It features redesigned flaps that aim to improve the ship’s chances of surviving reentry without overheating, while the craft will also carry a payload for the first time.
SpaceX hopes to deploy 10 fake satellites into orbit as part of a deployment test, while also attempting to catch the rocket’s booster at the launch tower using a ‘chopstick’ mechanism.
You can follow all the latest updates and analysis in the live blog below, as well as watch a live stream of the launch on this page around half an hour before the launch.
SpaceX delays Starship launch
SpaceX has delayed the Starship launch due to weather conditions.
New launch date is same time tomorrow: 4pm CT (10pm GMT).
Launch is postponed again
The launch will not take place today, because of adverse weather, and SpaceX will try again tomorrow at 4pm local central time or 10pm in the UK.
The biggest rocket ever built
The Starship used in today’s flight test is the biggest ever Starship – which was already the biggest rocket ever built.
This graphic, which features the previous version of Starship, shows how it towers over other massive rockets at 120-metres-tall.
Today’s rocket measures 123 metres – nearly 30 metres taller than Big Ben’s tower. Not only do SpaceX have to lift it off the ground, it’s also got to catch it.
Last year, Elon Musk said SpaceX plans to build Starships in the future that are bigger than the Great Pyramids of Giza. Writing in a post on X (formerly Twitter) last year, Mr Musk wrote that Starship “will probably approach ~140m (currently ~120m) over time”.
Starship is fully stacked and ready to launch
SpaceX has shared pictures of a fully-stacked Starship on the launchpad at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. There’s less than 10 hours to go until lift off, weather permitting, with fueling expected to begin around 45 minutes before lift off.
While the top half of the rocket heads to orbit, the Super Heavy booster will attempt to return to the launch tower where a giant chopstick mechanism will try to catch it. The system has been designed for rapid reusability, allowing ground crew to refuel the rocket and send it back on its way, much like an aircraft.
SpaceX has only caught the booster rocket once before, with the last attempt aborted in the final moments. You can watch a video of the last Starship flight test here:
SpaceX aiming for record-breaking 2025
While this will be the first Starship flight test of 2025, today’s launch will be the eighth orbital launch for SpaceX so far this year.
Elon Musk’s company managed 138 successful orbital launches in 2024 - more than 40 more than the year before. SpaceX CEO Gwynne Shotwell has said that the firm is aiming for even more launches this year, with a good chunk of them being Starship flight tests.
If all goes well, the first commercial Starship launches will be taking place as early as August.
What to expect from today’s Starship launch
After pushing back the launch, SpaceX now appears ready to perform the latest Starship flight test on Wednesday, with a 60-minute launch window opening at 4pm CT (10pm GMT).
The latest generation of Starship is bigger and hopefully better than all the ones that came before. Upgrades include smaller flaps, redesigns to the propulsion system, a 25 per cent increase in propellent volume, and a complete overhaul of the vehicle’s avionics.
It will also be the first time that SpaceX has carried a payload into space aboard a Starship rocket, albeit a fake one. 10 “Starlink simulators” aimed at mimicking the company’s space internet satellites will be deployed while in space, though they will be on a suborbital trajectory and will splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
Here’s a full timeline of what to expect, together with a helpful graphic provided by SpaceX:
TIME EVENT
00:00:02 Liftoff
00:01:02 Max Q (moment of peak aerodynamic stress on the rocket)
00:02:32 Super Heavy MECO (most engines cut off)
00:02:40 Hot-staging (Starship Raptor ignition and stage separation)
00:02:46 Super Heavy boostback burn startup
00:03:30 Super Heavy boostback burn shutdown
00:03:32 Hot-stage jettison00:06:26Super Heavy is transonic
00:06:35 Super Heavy landing burn start
00:06:55 Super Heavy landing burn shutdown and catch
00:08:53 Starship engine cutoff
00:17:33 Payload deploy demo
00:37:33 Raptor in-space relight demo
00:47:25 Starship entry
01:03:12 Starship is transonic
01:04:26 Starship is subsonic
01:06:12 Landing flip
01:06:18 Landing burn
01:06:38 Landing
Hello and welcome...
to The Independent’s live coverage of today’s Starship launch.
SpaceX is currently preparing for the latest test of the world’s biggest rocket, with lift off from the firm’s Starbase facility in Texas scheduled for 4pm local time (10pm GMT) on Wednesday.
We’ll have all the latest news, updates and analysis, as well as a live stream of the launch as soon as it’s available.
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