SpaceX is set to launch Starship on its fourth test spaceflight.

• On Thursday, SpaceX will attempt a fourth test flight of its Starship rocket.
• The private facility in Texas has a two-hour window, from 8 a.m. ET to 10 a.m. ET, for Elon Musk's company to launch Starship.
• If the launch is successful, Starship will orbit the Earth and then return to the Indian Ocean for a splashdown.

On Thursday, SpaceX will attempt a fourth test flight of its Starship rocket, with the goal of advancing the development of the massive spacecraft.

Elon Musk's company has a two-hour window, from 8 a.m. ET to 10 a.m. ET, to launch Starship from its Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas. If SpaceX fails to launch within that time frame due to weather or technical issues, the company will reschedule the attempt for a later date.

If the launch is successful, Starship will orbit the Earth and then return to the Indian Ocean for a splashdown.

The Starship rocket system has been launched on three spaceflight tests so far, with launches in April 2023, November, and March. While each test flight achieved more milestones than the last, each result resulted in the destruction of the rocket before the flight's conclusion.

During its third test flight, SpaceX's rocket flew the farthest, enabling the company to test new capabilities such as opening and closing the payload door in space, which will be crucial for deploying satellites on future missions, and transferring fuel during the flight in a NASA demonstration.

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.

SpaceX's strategy for developing Starship involves "recursive improvement" of the rocket, with each test flight, even if it ends in a fiery outcome, bringing progress towards its goal of a fully reusable rocket capable of transporting people to the moon and Mars. The company emphasizes the importance of building on what it has learned from previous flights.

In 2023, Musk predicted that the company would allocate approximately $2 billion for Starship development.

Goals for fourth flight

SpaceX's leadership has previously emphasized that the company expects to fly hundreds of Starship missions before launching any crew.

SpaceX aims to surpass the milestones of the third test flight and demonstrate the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy in the fourth flight, as stated in an update on the company's website.

The main goals are to execute a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster and achieve a controlled entry of Starship, as stated by SpaceX.

Starship's reliability has been improved through software and hardware modifications completed by the company.

The rocket

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, generating 16.7 million pounds of thrust, which is approximately double the 8.8 million pounds of thrust produced by NASA's Space Launch System rocket during its maiden launch 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.