Update for Nov. 18: SpaceX’s Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster exploded during the second flight test on its launch day. Read our coverage for full details and video.
Witness live the second-ever giant Starship vehicle launch from SpaceX today (Nov. 18).
Starship, the largest and most potent rocket ever constructed is set to launch from SpaceX‘s Starbase site in South Texas today at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT; 7 a.m. local Texas time).
You can watch the live action here on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to start at around 7:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT).
Related: How to watch SpaceX’s 2nd Starship launch on Nov. 18
Read more: How SpaceX’s 2nd Starship rocket test launch will work
SpaceX’s Starship is being developed to transport people and cargo to the moon and Mars, in addition to performing various spaceflight tasks. NASA has chosen Starship as the initial crewed lunar lander for its Artemis program, and the vehicle has several private moon missions scheduled as well.
The vehicle, nearly 400 feet tall (122 meters), comprises two elements intended to be reusable — a first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 165-foot-tall (50 meters) upper stage known as Starship.
The duo has flown together only once, on a test flight on April 20. The mission aimed to send the upper stage partway around Earth, ending with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii. However, Starship’s two stages failed to separate as planned, leading SpaceX to intentionally destroy the vehicle high over the Gulf of Mexico.
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Saturday’s test flight will be a reprise of the April mission, attempting to accomplish what that debut jaunt could not.
If all goes according to plan, Super Heavy will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after launch. Starship, meanwhile, will head east out over the ocean, attain something close to orbital velocity and come down in the Pacific near Hawaii about 90 minutes after liftoff.
Saturday’s launch was originally supposed to occur on Friday (Nov. 17), but SpaceX delayed things by a day to swap out one of Super Heavy’s grid fins. These waffle-iron-shaped structures help the booster steer its way back to Earth after launch.
