[This livestream is expected to return at around 5:30 p.m. ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see the video player above.]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to launch the latest prototype of the next-generation Starship rocket on Wednesday, in the system’s third high-altitude flight test.
The Starship No. 10 prototype rocket, or SN10, aims to launch and fly as high as 10 kilometers, or about 32,800 feet high. The rocket is constructed of stainless steel, representing the early versions of the rocket that Musk unveiled in 2019.
SpaceX briefly fired the rocket’s engines for a launch attempt at about 3:15 pm ET but the rocket’s “slightly conservative high thrust” caused the rocket to halt the attempt, Musk said in a tweet.
“Increasing the amount of effort & recycling of propellant for another flight effort today,” Musk said.
SpaceX chief integration engineer John Insprucker told the company’s webcast that he plans to launch another attempt at around 5:30 pm ET.
The Federal Aviation Administration launch window for the SN10 effort will run until 7:30 pm ET.
The company is developing Starship with the goal of launching goods and people on missions to the moon and to Mars.
The Starship SN10 prototype rocket stands at the launch site at the company’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX
The flight will be similar to the SpaceX ones made in December and February, when it will test SN8 and SN9 flight prototypes, respectively. The two previous rockets completed a number of development goals – including aerodynamics testing, successive shutdown of the engines, and moving to the outside for landing – but both prototypes exploded. on impact while trying to land, unable to slow down enough.
Like SN8 and SN9, the SN10 flight’s goal is not to reach maximum altitude, but to test several key components of the Starship system. The Starship prototype is about 150 feet high, or about the size of a 15-story building, and is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. SpaceX fires all three engines for pickup and then shuts them down one at a time in sequence as it approaches the top of the flight’s expected altitude.
SN10 aims to move propellant from the main tanks to the head tanks, and then turn itself for “belly flop” reentry movement so that it can control its descent through the air with the four flaps of the rocket. Then, in the final moments of descent, SpaceX moves the rocket back to the right side and fires the Raptor’s engines to slow it down for an attempt to land.
While SpaceX has yet to successfully deliver a Starship prototype after a flight test at altitude, the company has previously landed prototypes after short flights to about 500 feet in altitude.
Subscribe to CNBC PRO for unique insights and analysis, and live business day programs from around the world.