- SpaceX plans to launch Starship, its flagship mega-rocket, to orbit for the first time as soon as Monday.
- If Starship succeeds, it'll be the tallest, most powerful, and only fully reusable rocket ever flown.
- Elon Musk estimates a 50% chance of success. Watch the launch attempt live in the broadcast below.
SpaceX finally has clearance to launch its new Starship mega-rocket to orbit, and the company plans to attempt the monumental feat as soon as Monday.
Starship is the rocket on which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is hinging his biggest aspirations — including building and populating a human settlement on Mars. NASA, meanwhile, is counting on Starship to land its next astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.
On Friday, after years of review, the Federal Aviation Administration granted SpaceX a license to launch the 40-story-tall rocket from the company's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.
Once Starship is stacked atop its Super Heavy booster at the new launchpad there, the black-and-silver vehicle will be poised to prove itself as the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.
Shortly after the FAA granted its license, SpaceX announced it would attempt a launch as soon as Monday, with a launch window from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Central Time. Musk has estimated a 50% chance of success, hinting that the rocket may explode like many of its prototype predecessors.
The company plans to live-stream the launch, in the broadcast embedded below, starting 45 minutes before liftoff.
"I'm not saying it will get to orbit, but I am guaranteeing excitement," Musk said in an interview at the Morgan Stanley Conference on March 7, adding: "Won't be boring!"