How to watch Elon Musk give update on SpaceX Starship tonight
The megarocket is set for its first orbital launch as soon as next month, pending regulatory approval.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Starship being stacked atop a Super Heavy booster.
The last time we heard from Elon Musk about the Starship megarocket, the SpaceX founder and reigning richest Earthling said it could get to orbit "within six months." He also added that would sound totally nuts and, more than two years later, that goal remains unmet.
But should we expect an orbital flight soon? Perhaps -- and on Thursday, Musk is set to provide an update on Starship from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
Starship is the next-generation spacecraft NASA plans to use for its Artemis missions to the moon and that Musk hopes will land the first people on the red planet.
He said on Twitter last week that he'll present an update on the vehicle's development Thursday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. PT (8 p.m. CT) from the company's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas. CNET will be carrying a livestream of the event below and you should jump over to our live blog where will have all the announcements from the evening.
This will be the first such update we've gotten from Musk on Starship in almost two and a half years. In that time, SpaceX launched and crash-landed a handful of prototypes before completing a high-altitude flight and touchdown (without then blowing up) last May.
Next, the company plans to send Starship on its first orbital flight as soon as the Federal Aviation Administration completes a lengthy environmental review and issues a launch license. The FAA expects the review to be done by the end of this month, but the deadline has been pushed back once already.
This first orbital flight will also be the first time we watch the Starship vehicle flying atop the massive Super Heavy booster, which we have yet to see in action. The plan is for the pair to launch from Starbase, and then, after doing the major lifting, Super Heavy will separate and return for a landing on a specialized rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, Starship will continue into orbit and eventually make a soft splashdown off the coast of Hawaii.
Starship aspires to be the first fully reusable orbital launch vehicle, the holy grail of rocketry.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2022
This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary.
"Starship aspires to be the first fully reusable orbital launch vehicle, the holy grail of rocketry," Musk tweeted. "This is the critical breakthrough needed to make life multiplanetary."
Presumably, Musk will share more details about this mission, some engineering updates and perhaps a few surprises on Thursday. In addition to using Starship for exploratory missions beyond Earth, Musk has also said it is critical for the company to begin launching its Starlink broadband satellites using Starship as well.
SpaceX is expected to livestream the event, and you can follow along live below.
