SpaceX launch LIVE: Elon Musk announces 10km test attempt of Starship SN11 to Mars today

Today’s flight has been cleaned up.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the delay was related to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and another attempt will be made tomorrow.

There is less than an hour and a half until the launch window opens.

In the meantime, here is a reminder of how the SN10 test was carried out:

This “nice soft landing” was then followed by this moment, about eight minutes later:

With such a vague timeline, it’s hard to predict which astronauts will be involved in the trips to Mars. SpaceX is already working closely with NASA on missions to the ISS, and last week a group of astronauts visited the Starship SN11.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch shared an image of herself and her colleagues Michael Barratt, Reid Wiseman and Matthew Dominick standing in front of the prototype with the caption “Common goals, shared vision”.

There are still 2.5 hours until the launch window opens. Then it could be another five hours or so before that happens.

SpaceX doesn’t like releasing test schedules for Starship prototypes due to the number of variables that could cause disruption: FAA approval, technical issues, local road closures, weather, etc.

There is also no public timeline for the development of Starship, although we do have an idea of ​​what to expect from various statements released by SpaceX and Elon Musk’s comments:

March 2021: High altitude flight test of the Starship SN11.

July 2021: Starship SN20 or earlier will perform the very first orbital flight with a super heavy booster attached.

2022: Starship goes into production, with Elon Musk hoping to produce up to 100 a year and a fleet of over 1,000 by the early 2030s.

2023: First commercial flight of the Starship. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maeawa bought the first ticket and plans to bring eight members of the public with him on the trip around the moon.

2024: First unequipped spacecraft mission to Mars.

2026: First crewed spaceship mission to Mars.

2050: First autonomous colony established on Mars, transforming humanity into a multi-planetary species.

It looks like the weather wasn’t really the issue on Friday. A comment from Elon Musk on a Twitter thread came to our attention, in which he said the reason he was stepping down was that “additional cases were needed.”

That’s a good sign, and the weather is actually a lot better now anyway – at least from the footage we can see of Starship SN11 on the launch pad.

For comparison, here’s what the weather looked like on Friday, when the Starship SN11 launch was cleaned up without an explanation.

SpaceX has yet to publicly comment on why the attempt was abandoned, but there is speculation it was weather related. Hopefully not, otherwise today’s attempt doesn’t look good.

Here is the latest weather forecast for Boca Chica, Texas, courtesy of Weather.com.

It’s, well, cloudy. All day.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the launch won’t happen today, but it does mean it might be hard to see. The weather was much clearer for the SN10’s launch, but even then the Starship prototype was partially obscured by clouds when it reached its 10km peak.

Cameron County, Texas today issued a public notice for the closure of roads surrounding SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica.

It’s a shorter period than usual – the window was 12.5 hours Friday – but there is no static fire test today, just the flight. SpaceX typically calls for road closures for entire weeks, but Monday is currently the only day with closures listed. Any sign that SpaceX is confident the Starship SN11 will fly today?

All times shown are local, so the window opens at 6 p.m. BST and will close at 11 p.m.

SpaceX has also updated its website to include today’s date as the Starship SN11 test target.

Elon Musk confirmed last night that SpaceX is at least gearing up for a launch today.