SpaceX Tries Again to Launch Biggest Rocket Ever Made Into Space.

The closely held firm, co-founded by Elon Musk, delayed its first try on April 17 just a few minutes before launch because of a frozen pressure valve. This attempt, which also won’t have any people on board, is targeted for 9:28 a.m. New York time, with a 62-minute launch window, on Thursday from the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

The stakes are high. SpaceX has invested heavily in developing Starship and already has a nearly $3 billion contract with NASA to develop the vehicle into a lander to take astronauts to the moon. At about 400 feet tall, it’s the biggest spacecraft ever built with enough thrust to carry a payload possibly four times larger than the company’s most powerful rocket in operation.

Musk has already tried to set expectations low, suggesting the test could be valuable even if Starship doesn’t complete the planned partial orbit of Earth. He also said in a post on Twitter that the company is working to fix many issues and that the launch might not happen on Thursday.

“If we get far enough away from the launchpad before something goes wrong, then I think I would consider that to be a success,” Musk said during a Twitter audio discussion on Sunday before the first launch attempt.

SpaceX, which has been valued at about $140 billion, began building Starship hardware in earnest in 2018. Early on, Musk, the company’s chief executive officer, floated its potential to transport people to the moon and Mars. But just getting to this point hasn’t been easy. 

The company missed most of Musk’s launch deadlines. It also waited as the Federal Aviation Administration conducted a review of the environmental effects of the Boca Chica facility. In June of 2022, the agency said that SpaceX would need to implement 75 mitigation measures to lessen its impact on the surrounding area and wildlife. On April 14, the FAA finally granted a launch license.

Though SpaceX is known for landing its Falcon 9 rocket, that vehicle is partially reusable, with only a portion of the rocket returning to Earth after launch. Starship is designed to be fully reusable, with the entirety of the rocket eventually capable of returning to Earth intact. However, during this test, the plan is for Starship to fall into the ocean. 

Musk says that this reusability will significantly reduce the cost of Starship launches, which could open up access to deep space.

This launch will be the most important and complicated assessment of the vehicle yet. It aims to test if the rocket’s two parts — the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster — can separate. The flight will also show if Starship is able to reach the extreme speeds needed to orbit Earth.

So far, SpaceX has only tried launching Starship prototypes to about 30,000 feet without the booster and then attempting a landing. All but one of these tests ended with an explosion. 

If all goes well on Thursday, the Super Heavy booster will separate from Starship shortly after launch and fall back to Earth for a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has no plans for recovery. Testing Super Heavy’s reusability will come later.

Starship will then ignite its own engines, propelling it deeper into space and reaching near orbital speeds. About 9 1/2 minutes after launch, the craft will turn off its engines and cruise around the Earth, hitting a peak altitude of about 146 miles. The vehicle will then end its flight with a belly flop into the Pacific Ocean far off the coast of Hawaii.