Watch Live: All Eyes On SpaceX’s First Starship Launch Since Its IPO

SpaceX is scheduled to launch the 13th test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday evening, marking the first mission since the company completed its blockbuster public debut in June, according to ABC News. Liftoff is scheduled from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas, with a 90-minute launch window opening at 6:45 p.m. ET. As always, weather or technical issues could delay the attempt.

The mission will be the second flight of Starship Version 3, a significantly redesigned vehicle that SpaceX believes represents a major leap forward. Charlie Cox, the company’s director of Starship Engineering, described the new spacecraft as “basically a clean-sheet design,” explaining that engineers took the lessons learned from the first two generations and rebuilt the vehicle to address reliability and performance shortcomings.

The launch carries added significance now that SpaceX is a public company. Beyond the engineering milestones, investors will be watching closely because another successful test would reinforce confidence in the company’s long-term plans, while another high-profile setback could weigh on sentiment and potentially pressure the stock.

The ABC News report says that Starship sits at the center of SpaceX’s future. NASA plans to use a modified version of the spacecraft as the lunar lander for future Artemis missions, while SpaceX also intends to use it to rapidly expand its Starlink constellation, support future space-based infrastructure, and eventually carry humans to Mars. Bill Riley, SpaceX’s vice president of Starship Engineering, called Version 3 “the foundational design,” adding that it will ultimately be “the one that puts humans back on the moon” and eventually “the first boot prints and then city on Mars.”

The previous test flight achieved many of its objectives but also exposed several issues. The Super Heavy booster experienced propulsion problems during its return burn, resulting in a hard splashdown and an FAA investigation that has since been closed after regulators accepted SpaceX’s corrective actions. Meanwhile, Starship lost one of its Raptor engines during flight, forcing the company to abandon an attempted in-space engine relight.

Flight 13 will try that engine relight once again, a critical capability needed before Starship can reach orbit and begin deploying operational Starlink satellites. The spacecraft will also attempt to release 20 next-generation Starlink satellites during the mission. Like the previous test, the flight will remain suborbital, traveling from Texas across the Atlantic before splashing down in the Indian Ocean, while the Super Heavy booster is expected to land in the Gulf.

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