SpaceX is conducting flight testing for Starship to deploy satellites in space.

• On Thursday, SpaceX will carry out the seventh trial flight of its Starship rocket.
• The company has a one-hour window, from 5 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET, for the launch from its private "Starbase" facility in Brownsville, Texas.
• The rocket carrying 10 "Starlink simulators" is planned to deploy the satellite-like objects once in space during a crucial test by SpaceX.

On Thursday, SpaceX will launch the seventh test flight of its Starship rocket, with a focus on advancing development and conducting a crucial test for satellite deployment.

The company has a one-hour window, from 5 p.m. ET to 6 p.m. ET, to launch Starship from its private "Starbase" facility near Brownsville, Texas. If SpaceX fails to launch within that time frame due to weather or technical issues, the company will reschedule the attempt for a future date.

Despite the absence of people on board, SpaceX's Starship is carrying 10 "Starlink simulators" in its payload bay and aims to deploy them once in space. This is a crucial test of the rocket's capabilities, as SpaceX needs Starship to launch its upcoming generation of heavier and larger Starlink satellites.

The Starlink simulators used by SpaceX are likely made of metal or concrete and are designed to mimic the weight of the rocket they are simulating. These simulators are used in rocket vehicle development and are expected to follow a similar trajectory to the rocket during reentry, burning up as they descend.

If the launch is successful, Starship will reach space, circle the Earth halfway, and then return to Earth, splashing down in the Indian Ocean an hour after takeoff.

The "Super Heavy" booster of the rocket would return to the launch tower after separating from Starship and land on its arms, as the company accomplished on the fifth flight but failed to do on the sixth.

SpaceX aims to advance its Starship development by evaluating additional capabilities, such as heatshield tiles and reentry trajectory tests, with each flight.

Despite its $350 billion valuation and dominant position in the space industry, Starship remains critical to the company's plans.

The Starship rocket, launched by SpaceX, is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched. It stands 403 feet tall and is 30 feet in diameter when fully stacked on the Super Heavy booster. Since April 2023, SpaceX has conducted six spaceflight tests of the full Starship rocket system, with a steadily increasing cadence.

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 171 feet tall, is equipped with six Raptor engines, three of which are used for atmospheric flight and the other three for space operation.

More than 10 million pounds of propellant, specifically liquid oxygen and liquid methane, are needed to power the rocket for launch.

The Starship on this launch, labeled as Ship 33, is a second-generation version of the vehicle, known as "Block 2."

The vehicle underwent significant upgrades, including modifications to its nose flaps, improvements to its propulsion system, an advanced flight computer, 30 cameras for monitoring, and a reinforced heat shield.

NASA has awarded SpaceX a multibillion-dollar contract to use the Starship system as a crewed lunar lander for the Artemis moon program. The Starship is designed to be fully reusable and aims to become a new method of flying cargo and people beyond Earth. The rocket is also critical to NASA's plan to return astronauts to the moon.