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How to watch SpaceX launch Flight 6 of its Starship mega-rocket today

Vaseline3 weeks ago

0 2 minutes read

How to watch SpaceX launch Flight 6 of its Starship mega-rocket today

Just before sunset tonight (Nov. 19) on the outskirts of Texas’ southernmost city, SpaceX’s Starship rocket is scheduled to launch on its sixth test flight into space, and you can watch it live on Space.com.

The two-stage reusable vehicle is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, consisting of the Starship upper stage and the Super Heavy booster. Today’s launch, called Integrated Flight Test-6 (IFT-6), is expected to take off during a 30-minute period beginning at 5:00 PM EST (9:00 PM GMT; 4:00 PM local time in Texas).

This will be SpaceX’s second Starship launch in as many months, after successfully flying IFT-5 on October 13. Today’s launch will largely mirror that most recent flight, with the return and capture of the Super Heavy booster using the launch tower’s “chopstick.” weapons and a controlled landing of a Starship in the Indian Ocean.

The livestream for SpaceX’s Starship Flight 6 will begin 30 minutes before the launch window opens, around 4:30 PM EST (2030 GMT). SpaceX’s official stream can be found via the company’s own X account, which is simulcast on the Space.com YouTube channel, VideoFromSpace. Live coverage of the launch will also appear at the top of the Space.com homepage.

Related: SpaceX rolls Starship Flight 6 Super Heavy rocket to launch ahead of Nov. 19 liftoff (Photos)

Building on the success of IFT-5, today’s Starship launch will also attempt a boost-back and chopstick arm capture of the Super Heavy booster. The Starship upper stage has new objectives not included in the final flight, including “reigniting a (Star)ship Raptor engine while in orbit, and testing a series of heat shield experiments and maneuver changes for the ship’s return and descent over the Indian Ocean,” the company wrote in a mission description.

Super Heavy and Starship were transported separately to space last week from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in south Texas, where the two were stacked in preparation for today’s launch. Combined, the integrated Starship rocket is almost 400 feet tall, with a diameter of 30 feet. Once in service, the Starship is expected to be able to lift payloads of up to 100 tons to low Earth orbit and transport crews to the surface of the moon and Mars.

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NASA is counting on that capability as part of its Artemis program. SpaceX was awarded NASA’s first Human Landing Services contract in 2021, deploying Starship as a lunar lander for Artemis 3, which will take NASA astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time since the end of the Apollo missions in 1972 . is currently scheduled for launch in September 2025.

The space agency’s vested interest in Starship’s success comes with potential delays for both Artemis 3 and its predecessor Artemis 2, which face uncertainty as damage to Orion’s heat shield on Artemis 1 is scrutinized by the inspector general of NASA.

Vaseline3 weeks ago
0 2 minutes read

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