SpaceX plans to launch its giant Starship spacecraft for the second time ever this morning (November 18), and you can watch the event live.
Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, is scheduled to lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase site in south Texas today during a 20-minute window that opens at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT; 7 a.m. local Texas time). .
You can watch it live here on Space.com, or courtesy of SpaceX, or Directly through the company. Coverage is expected to begin at approximately 7:25 a.m. EST (1225 GMT).
Related: How to watch the launch of SpaceX’s second spacecraft on November 18
Read more: How will the second test launch of the Starship rocket work?
SpaceX is developing a Starship vehicle to carry people and cargo to the Moon and Mars, as well as perform a variety of spaceflight duties closer to home. NASA has selected Starship as the first manned lunar lander for its Artemis program, and the vehicle has several special lunar missions on its docket as well.
The roughly 400-foot-tall (122-meter) vehicle consists of two components, both of which are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable — a first stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot (50-meter) upper stage known as the Starship.
The pair have flown together only once so far, on a test flight that launched from Starbase on April 20. The mission aims to send the upper stage partially around the Earth, ending with a landing in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. But Starship’s two stages failed to separate as planned, and SpaceX intentionally destroyed the vehicle high above the Gulf of Mexico.
Related: Stunning photos of SpaceX’s first spacecraft launch
Saturday’s test flight will be a repeat of the April mission, trying to accomplish what that first flight couldn’t.
If all goes according to plan, the Super Heavy vehicle will land in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after launch. Meanwhile, the spacecraft will head east over the ocean, reach near orbital velocity, then touch down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 90 minutes after liftoff.
The launch was originally supposed to take place on Saturday (November 17), but SpaceX delayed things by a day to replace one of the Super Heavy’s grid fins. These reinforced iron-shaped structures help the ship return to Earth after launch.
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