SpaceX Starship SN11 launch – follow live

Speaking of weather, here’s how the forecast looks in Boca Chica for todays launch window (7am – 3pm).

It’s clearer than yesterday, though the wind begins to pick up later on in the window. Hopefully SpaceX gets the test completed early on.

There are a number of variables that can potentially scupper a Starship launch attempt: Weather, local road closures, FAA clearance, and technical issues with the craft itself.

It means it can be a frustrating wait – all for just six minutes of flight – but it’s worth it in the end.

Elon Musk has tweeted that the new attempt will take place early in the launch window, at 8am local time (2pm BST) today.

That’s just over four hours away.

Good morning, we’re back for another launch attempt of Starship SN11.

Cameron County has updated its public notices for local road closures around SpaceX’s Boca Chica base.

It’s a longer window than yesterday’s, and there’s a back-up window for Friday – or potentially another test?

Today’s flight has been scrubbed.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says the delay relates to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and that another attempt will be made tomorrow.

Less than 1.5 hours to go now until the launch window opens.

While we wait, here’s a reminder of how the SN10 test went:

That “beautiful soft landing” was then followed by this moment, roughly eight minutes later:

With such a vague timeline, it is hard to predict which astronauts will be involved in the trips to Mars. SpaceX is already working closely with Nasa for missions to the ISS, and last week a group of astronauts visited Starship SN11.

Nasa astronaut Christina Koch shared an image of herself and colleagues Michael Barratt, Reid Wiseman and Matthew Dominick standing in front of the prototype with the caption “common goals, shared vision”.

There’s still 2.5 hours until the launch window opens. Then it could be another five or so hours before it actually takes place.

SpaceX doesn’t like to publicize testing schedules of the Starship prototypes due to the number of variables that could cause disruption: FAA approval, technical issues, local road closures, weather, etc.

There is also no public timeline for Starship’s development, though we have an idea of what to expect through various statements put out by SpaceX and comments from Elon Musk:

March 2021: Starship SN11 high-altitude flight test.

July 2021: Starship SN20 or earlier will perform the first ever orbital flight with a super heavy booster attached.

2022: Starship enters production, with Elon Musk hoping to produce up to 100 per year and a fleet size of 1,000+ in the early 2030s.

2023: First commercial flight of Starship. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maeawa bought the first ticket and plans to bring eight members of the public with him on the trip around the moon.

2024: First uncrewed Starship mission to Mars.

2026: First ever crewed Starship mission to Mars.

2050: First self-sustaining colony established on Mars, transforming humanity into a multi-planetary species.

It seems that the weather wasn’t actually the issue on Friday. A comment from Elon Musk on a Twitter thread has been brought to our attention, where he said that the reason for standing down was that “additional checkouts are needed.”

That’s a good sign, and the weather is actually looking much better now anyway – at least from the images we can see of Starship SN11 on the launchpad.

For comparison, this is how the weather looked on Friday, when the Starship SN11 launch was scrubbed without explanation.

SpaceX has still not publicly commented on why the attempt was abandoned, but there is speculation that it was weather related. Hopefully that’s not the case, otherwise today’s attempt does not look good.