Starship launch – live: SpaceX wants to launch the world's largest rocket in the decisive test of its Mars ambitions

If today's launch is canceled, SpaceX has set up alternative launch windows for the Starship flight test.

Authorities in Cameron County, where SpaceX's Starbase facility is located, have issued beach closures to the public for June 7 and 8. They list closure times for both days from noon local time to 2 p.m.

SpaceX says the launch is now scheduled for 7:50 a.m. local time (1:50 p.m. BST), 50 minutes into the two-hour launch window. That leaves plenty of time for any minor delays that might occur during the countdown, as has happened in the past.

Weather conditions for launch are reportedly 95 percent favorable, about the best that can be achieved for a launch of this type.

We will have a live stream in about 50 minutes.

SpaceX called the final Starship flight test in March “phenomenal,” even though both parts of the rocket were ultimately lost. That view appears to be shared by the project's backers, according to people we spoke to after the launch.

Chad Anderson, managing partner of SpaceX investor Space Capital, said The Independent He considers the mission to be “extremely successful” and sees it as an “incredible breakthrough” for the company.

“The engineering challenges for a vehicle of this size and complexity are immense,” he said. “Starship is a revolutionary launch vehicle that promises to change all common ideas about space: that it is expensive, difficult and dangerous to get there.”

For more information about Starship Test Flight 3, see:

SpaceX has helpfully provided a comprehensive overview of what to expect from today's launch, revealing down to the second what each phase of launch, flight and landing should look like.

There is also an illustration that gives a rough idea of ​​what the whole thing should look like:

00:01:02 Max Q (moment of maximum mechanical load on the rocket)

00:02:41 Super Heavy MECO (most engines switched off)

00:02:45 Hot staging (ignition of the Starship Raptor and stage separation)

00:02:49 Superheavy boostback burn start

00:03:52 Super-heavy boostback burn shutdown

00:03:54 Dropping the hot stage

00:06:39 Super Heavy is transonic

00:06:43 Takeoff with burning during landing of a Super Heavy

00:07:04 Shutdown of the combustion process during landing of a super heavy-duty vehicle

00:08:23 Shutdown of the spaceship engine

01:03:11 The spaceship is transonic

01:04:01 Spaceship is subsonic

01:05:48 An exciting landing!

On March 14, SpaceX's birthday, Starship launched from the Starbase facility and traveled through space for nearly an hour before finally breaking apart during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

Today's flight is expected to follow a similar trajectory and last one hour and five minutes.

You can watch the launch, flight and eventual demise of the last Starship spacecraft to make this attempt here (jump straight to minute 38 for the launch):

The two-hour launch window will open in just a few hours, and Starship will be fully loaded and waiting to be fueled on the launch pad at SpaceX's Starbase facility.

With today’s launch, the company hopes to achieve the following:

At 120 meters high, Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built – but SpaceX boss Elon Musk says it will soon be even bigger.

In response to a post on X (formerly Twitter) last month, Mr Musk said wrote that Starship “will likely reach a size of ~140 m over time (currently ~120 m)”.

For comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza – the largest Egyptian pyramid – is 137 m high. It is not clear whether this extra height also translates into more power, as the current version can generate 7.5 million kilograms of thrust – about twice as much as the world's second most powerful rocket, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS).

Today's attempt comes just three months after SpaceX last launched a Starship rocket into space, and while it successfully reached orbit, not everything went according to plan.

Both Starship's Super Heavy Booster and main rocket were destroyed before they could return to Earth, so today's attempt is a critical test for SpaceX's hopes of using the spacecraft for missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond in the years to come. Proving that both parts of the massive rocket are reusable is SpaceX's main goal today, so here's hoping they splash down in the Gulf of Mexico and the Indian Ocean, respectively. And that there are no more explosions.

We have a recap of SpaceX's explosive Starship story. You can watch it here:

To The IndependentLive coverage of today's Starship launch attempt. The rocket is loaded, the roads are cleared, and approval for launch has been received from the relevant authorities.

We'll bring you all the latest updates, analysis, and even a live stream of the launch itself once it's ready.