Observe the Fourth Launch of Starship by SpaceX This Year

• On Tuesday, SpaceX will attempt a sixth test flight of its Starship rocket, marking its fourth flight of the rocket in 2024.
• The Starship can be launched from its facility near Brownsville, Texas within a 30-minute window from 5 p.m. ET to 5:30 p.m. ET.
• SpaceX intends to employ its launch tower's arms to capture the rocket's booster, as it successfully accomplished last month.

On Tuesday, SpaceX will launch its sixth test flight of the Starship rocket, aiming to maintain the progress of the development of the massive vehicle.

The launch of Starship from SpaceX's private facility in Brownsville, Texas, is scheduled for a 30-minute window from 5 p.m. ET to 5:30 p.m. ET. If the launch cannot be made within this time frame due to weather or technical issues, SpaceX will reschedule for a later date.

There will not be any people on board the Starship flight.

If the launch proceeds as planned, Starship will reach space, circle the Earth halfway, and then return to splash down in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, the "Super Heavy" booster will separate from Starship and land on the launch tower's arms.

SpaceX continues to advance its Starship technology by testing additional capabilities during each flight, such as reigniting an engine in space and evaluating its heatshield during reentry.

This will be the first time Starship makes a daylight splashdown during an evening launch.

SpaceX usually has a group of VIPs to witness Starship launches, and with CEO Elon Musk's close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, the sixth flight is no exception. Trump is anticipated to be present at the launch on Tuesday, just as he was during SpaceX's first astronaut launch in Florida in 2020 while he was in his first term.

Pushing the envelope

Since April 2023, SpaceX has conducted five spaceflight tests of the full Starship rocket system, with the most recent launch showcasing the first catch of the rocket's 20-story tall booster.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that SpaceX was authorized to proceed with the sixth flight following the successful completion of the fifth flight.

The fifth SpaceX launch encountered issues, as revealed by Elon Musk in a post-launch audio on social media. The Starship's booster almost missed its catch due to a timing problem with one of the rocket's subsystems.

An unidentified person informed Musk in an audio recording that they were one second away from instructing the rocket to abort and crash into the ground next to the tower instead of landing at it, which would have been an error.

SpaceX will attempt the booster catch again, with the company stating on its website that it has made hardware improvements to the rocket's booster for enhanced redundancy and enhanced structural strength.

NASA has awarded SpaceX a multibillion-dollar contract to use the Starship system as a crewed lunar lander for the Artemis moon program, with the aim of making it a reusable method for flying cargo and people beyond Earth.

The Super Heavy booster, when fully stacked with Starship, reaches a height of 397 feet and has a diameter of about 30 feet.

The Super Heavy booster, standing 232 feet tall, initiates the rocket's journey to space. At its base are 33 Raptor engines, which together generate 16.7 million pounds of thrust, almost double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which launched for the first time in 2022.

The Starship, standing at 165 feet tall, is equipped with six Raptor engines, three of which are used for atmospheric flight and the other three for space operation.

The rocket propulsion system utilizes liquid oxygen and liquid methane, necessitating over 10 million pounds of propellant for launch.