Watch SpaceX launch, try to land a prototype spaceship without blowing up

Spacecraft launches have become a regular occurrence at SpaceX’s rocket development facilities in Boca Chica, Texas. For the second time this month, the company is preparing to pilot an advanced prototype of its next spacecraft.

Called Starship serial n ° 11, or SN11, the prototype could be launched on Tuesday. It’s ready to roar tens of thousands of feet in the air, shut off its engines, roll onto its side, then fall back to Earth. Four wing flaps should control the rocket’s fall, and its engines should reignite just in time to return it upright and lower it to the landing pad.

SpaceX has already launched three of these high altitude test flights, but each ended in a catastrophic explosion. The first two prototypes, SN8 and SN9, crashed into the airstrip at high speed and exploded immediately. The third, SN10, landed in one piece but exploded 10 minutes later.

All of these prototypes represent the top stage of a two-part system: Eventually, a booster of about 23 stages called Super Heavy would lift the Starship spacecraft into orbit. The whole system is supposed to be fully and quickly reusable, which could allow SpaceX to reduce the cost to reach space by 1,000 times.

The long-term vision of SpaceX founder Elon Musk is for the system to transport astronauts to the moon and propel hypersonic travel to Earth. He said he plans to build 1,000 spaceships in order to transport people and goods to Mars and establish a Martian colony.

SpaceX could try to fly and land SN11 as early as this week. The Federal Aviation Administration issued airspace closures in the area for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the Cameron County judge issued local route closure notices for Wednesday and Thursday. Air and road closures are required for launch.

However, these closures can be postponed if SpaceX is not ready to fly. Ahead of flight SN9, further closures were reported week after week before SpaceX made a launch attempt. We’ll update this article once SpaceX confirms a launch date for SN11.

Watch the Starship prototype fly live

SpaceX is expected to broadcast the test flight live, as it did for the last three. This livestream will be integrated below as it becomes available.

In the meantime, a few fans of the company are retransmitting the preparation activities at the launch facilities. Some of their video feeds captured a static fire test last week – that’s when SpaceX fires up a rocket’s motors to test them before flight.

LabPadre offers six unique views of the Starship launch site. Below is the channel’s main 4K resolution stream.

For a more distant view of the launch site – streamed from the top of a South Padre Island resort about 10 miles away – check out SPadre’s 24-hour live stream.

NASASpaceflight also covers events in Boca Chica, offering shows with multiple high-quality camera views and commentary commentary. Their launch livestream will be added once it’s also available.