After a successful fueling test late Friday, Jan. 10, SpaceX is on track to launch its Starship Flight 7 mission at 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Monday, Jan. 13, from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. The mission will mark the seventh test flight of a SpaceX Starship, but it’s the first of a new design for the rocket that includes significant upgrades. If all goes well, the company will attempt to catch the Starship rocket’s huge Super Heavy booster at its launch site as it did last fall.
You’ll be able to watch the Starship Flight 7 launch live on Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, in a livestream that will likely begin about 30 minutes before launch time. Follow our Starship live updates for more mission milestones
SpaceX is currently targeting 5 p.m. EST (2200 GMT) on Monday, Jan. 13, for the launch of its Starship Flight 7 test flight, a time that will ensure it will be daytime in the Indian Ocean when the Ship vehicle returns to Earth. It will be 4 p.m. local time at the Starbase launch site at liftoff. The company may have at least two backup days for the flight, if needed.
On Friday, Jan. 10, SpaceX reported on X that it conducted a successful fueling test of the stacked Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster, which stand nearly 400 feet (122 meters) when fully assembled. The megarocket is the world’s tallest and most powerful rocket.
SpaceX’s Starship rockets use 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster to lift off its Mechazilla pad at the Starbase facility. The upper stage is powered by six vacuum Raptor engines.
The first Starship launch lifted off in April 2023 but failed to reach space. It was SpaceX’s Flight 3 Starship that reached space for the first time in March 2024. The company launched three more missions in 2024, the highlight of which was the Oct. 14 launch of Starship Flight 5, which marked the first time SpaceX successfully caught the massive Super Heavy rocket with the Mechazilla gantry arms.
Can I watch the SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 launch?
Yes, you will be able to watch SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 test launch online. You can use several different livestreams to track the mission, including one we’ll simulcast on Space.com.SpaceX’s official launch webcast will stream live on the company’s X social media account , as well as its Flight 7 mission page. The livestream should begin about 30 minutes before liftoff at 4:30p.m. EST (2030 GMT). Space.com’s VideoFromSpace YouTube channel will simulcast SpaceX’s official webcast, and it will appear on this page and at the top of our homepage.How long is SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7?
SpaceX’s Starship Flight 7 test flight is expected to last about just over 66 minutes, according to a flight plan released by SpaceX.
Per that plan, the Flight 7 Ship vehicle is expected to fly on a trajectory very similar to that of SpaceX’s Flight 6 Starship launch in November. In that previous flight, Starship launched on a suborbital trajectory that reentered over the Indian Ocean, west of Australia.
During its hour-long flight, the Ship vehicle is expected to attempt to deploy its 10 simulated Starlink satellites about 17 minutes after liftoff. At the 37-minute mark, the spacecraft is expected to relight one of its six Raptor engines in a relight demonstration similar to one performed on Flight 6.
“While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission,” SpaceX wrote in a mission overview. “The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean.”
SpaceX’s mission profile for the Starship Flight 7 test flight. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The Super Heavy booster launching Starship will also reenter Earth’s atmosphere. SpaceX is hoping to catch the giant rocket stages just like the company did in October during its Starship Flight 5 test flight, when the rocket was captured by giant metal “chopsticks” on what SpaceX calls Mechazilla, its Starship launch pad structure.
“Distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch of the Super Heavy booster, requiring healthy systems on the booster and tower and a final manual command from the mission’s Flight Director,” SpaceX wrote in its overview.
If those criteria aren’t met, SpaceX will forego the rocket catch attempt and Super Heavy will automatically divert itself to a soft-landing attempt in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s exactly what happened in November during the Flight 6 test flight. For Flight 7, both the Super Heavy booster and the Mechazilla structure are carrying hardware upgrades to make a catch more likely, “including protections to the sensors on the tower chopsticks that were damaged at launch” during the Flight 6 test flight, SpaceX said.
| TIME (Hr:Min:Sec) | EVENT | |
|---|---|---|
| T-1:15:00 | Flight director poll for fuel loading | |
| T-0:44:59 | Starship liquid oxygen loading begins | |
| T-0:42:20 | Starship liquid methane loading begins | |
| T-0:41:24 | Super Heavy liquid methane loading begins | |
| T-0:35:28 | Super Heavy liquid oxygen loading begins | |
| T-00:19:40 | Super Heavy Raptor engine chilldown | |
| T-00:3:20 | Starship fueling complete | |
| T-00:2:50 | Super Heavy fueling complete | |
| T-00:0:30 | Flight Director GO for launch | |
| T-00:00:10 | Flame deflector activation | |
| T-00:00:03 | Raptor ignition sequence startup | |
| T-00:00:00 | Liftoff (“Excitement Guaranteed,” SpaceX says) |
| TIME (Hr:Min:Sec) | FLIGHT EVENT | |
|---|---|---|
| T+00:02 | Liftoff | |
| T+01:02 | Starship/Super Heavy reach Max Q | |
| T+02:32 | Super Heavy main engine cutoff | |
| T+02:40 | Hot-staging separation/Starship Raptor engine ignition | |
| T+02:46 | Super Heavy boostback burn startup | |
| T+03:29 | Super Heavy boostback burn engine shutdown | |
| T+03:31 | Hot-stage jettison | |
| T+06:25 | Super Heavy is transonic | |
| T+06:35 | Super Heavy landing burn startup | |
| T+06:55 | Super Heavy landing burn shutdown and catch try | |
| T+08:53 | Starship engine cutoff | |
| T+00:17:33 | Payload deploy demo | |
| T+00:37:33 | Starship engine relight demonstration | |
| T+00:47:14 | Starship reentry | |
| T+01:03:12 | Starship transonic | |
| T+1:04:25 | Starship is subsonic | |
| T+1:06:13 | Landing flip | |
| T+1:06:19 | Landing burn | |
| T+1:06:39 | “An exciting landing!” SpaceX says. |
What if Starship can’t launch on Jan. 13?
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