SpaceX is preparing for its sixth test flight of the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. The nearly 400ft-tall megarocket, made up of the Starship spacecraft stacked atop the Super Heavy booster, is expected to take off today during a 30-minute window from 5 p.m E.T., after Monday’s launch was rescheduled. President-elect Donald Trump confirmed he is attending the launch, at the Starbase facility near Brownsville, Texas, in a post on X. “Heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground,” he wrote, adding that he wished SpaceX CEO Elon Musk “good luck.” Starship was selected by NASA as the lunar lander for the Artemis III mission, aiming to return humans to the moon by 2026. Musk is hoping to replicate the success of the last Starship test flight, on October 13, when SpaceX successfully used a giant set of metal pincers, which it calls ‘chopsticks,’ to catch its Super Heavy booster midair. Musk has said he also hopes to test:
- Restarting the Raptor engines in vacuum
- Daylight landing
- Steeper reentry
- Faster and harder booster catch
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