Video: SpaceX Is Launching Starship's Sixth Test Flight—Watch the Lift Off and Catch Attempt Live President-elect Donald Trump is expected to attend SpaceX's sixth test flight of its Starship rocket on Tuesday.
By Erin Davis
What Time Is Starship Launching Tuesday?
The sixth flight test of Starship is targeted to lift off on Tuesday, November 19. The 30-minute launch window opens at 5 p.m. EST.
How Can I Watch the Sixth Starship Test Flight?
A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 40 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch on the SpaceX website, and live on X @SpaceX.
Watch it live, here:
Watch Starship's sixth flight test → https://t.co/oIFc3u9laE https://t.co/acpdO2brbP
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 16, 2024
The test flight comes a month after its mega-viral fifth test flight, where the SpaceX team successfully saw its Super Heavy booster return to the launch site and be caught by "chopstick arms" on its first attempt.
Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024
Where Is Starship Launching From?
Starship launches from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, campus on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville.
What Is New for the Sixth Test Flight of Starship?
The 30-foot-wide, 397-foot-tall rocket will launch with the same goals as the fifth fight, "to expand the envelope on ship and booster capabilities and get closer to bringing reuse of the entire system online," according to SpaceX.
The company says that this flight's objectives "include the booster once again returning to the launch site for the catch, reigniting a ship Raptor engine while in space, and testing a suite of heatshield experiments and maneuvering changes for ship reentry and descent over the Indian Ocean."
SpaceX notes that this flight also has "hardware upgrades" and "updated software controls" with "several thermal protection experiments and operational changes will test the limits of Starship's capabilities and generate flight data to inform plans for ship catch and reuse."
Will There Be a Seventh Test Flight?
SpaceX says on its website that there will be more test flights "with significant upgrades including redesigned forward flaps, larger propellant tanks, and the latest generation tiles and secondary thermal protection layers as we continue to iterate towards a fully reusable heat shield."
New dates have not yet been publicly released.
