Today00:46 BSTSpaceX unable to launch Starship todaySpaceX has said it is unable to clear an issue in time for the launch today."New rocket, new pad. We're learning a lot about these systems as we execute them for the first time and we're not able to troubleshoot all of these issues in the final seconds to get to launch," a representative for SpaceX said during the livestream.SpaceX will get into a flight "tomorrow" (Friday, May 22).Today00:29 BSTStarship will launch in one minuteStarship will launch in one minute.Today00:27 BSTStarship to play role in NASA’s Artemis programStarship is planned to play a role in putting crew and cargo on the lunar surface under NASA’s Artemis program.Today00:21 BSTWatch Starship's twelfth flight testContent cannot be displayed without consent21st May23:48 BSTWatch the launch LIVEThe launch can be streamed here.21st May23:44 BSTSpaceX: 'The Starship team is go for prop load'SpaceX has said in a post on social media:"The Starship team is go for prop load"21st May23:14 BSTSpaceX launch pushed back againThe launch has been pushed back again, and is now set for 6.30pm local time (12.30am UK time).Content cannot be displayed without consent21st May23:02 BSTStarship is crucial to Musk’s dream of 'AI datacentres in space’In a post on the SpaceX website in February, company owner Elon Musk outlined his vision for AI datacenters in space and the crucial role the Starship would play in launching the components into orbit.He said: “With launches every hour carrying 200 tons per flight, Starship will deliver millions of tons to orbit and beyond per year, enabling an exciting future where humanity is out exploring amongst the stars.“The basic math is that launching a million tons per year of satellites generating 100 kW of compute power per ton would add 100 gigawatts of AI compute capacity annually, with no ongoing operational or maintenance needs. Ultimately, there is a path to launching 1 TW/year from Earth.“My estimate is that within 2 to 3 years, the lowest cost way to generate AI compute will be in space.”21st May22:44 BSTStarship will take off form a new launch padIt's not just the first outing for the redesigned Starship V3 this evening, the launch pad itself has also been renewed. Flight 12 will mark the first launch from Pad 2 at the SpaceX Starbase facility in Texas.“The propellant farm that stores the required commodities has been upgraded with increased storage capacity and significantly more pumps, enabling much faster vehicle filling for launch,” the company said in a statement.It added: “On the launch tower, the chopsticks are now shorter, allowing faster motion to better track vehicles during catch operations. Their main actuators have been changed from hydraulic to electromechanical to improve speed, redundancy, and reliability. The quick disconnect arm for loading propellant into the Starship upper stage has been strengthened, repackaged, and now rotates farther away from the rocket during launch.”(Image: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock)21st May22:34 BSTSpaceX launch pushed backToday's SpaceX launch has been pushed back half an hour to 6pm local time (midnight in the UK).Content cannot be displayed without consent21st May22:19 BSTLive coverage to start soon A live stream of the launch will be shown on this page.It will start broadcasting the event about 45 minutes before lift-off, which is currently scheduled for 5:30pm local time (11:30pm BST) today.21st May21:50 BSTNew craft features 'significant redesigns'The Starship V3 features upgrades to the rocket’s Super Heavy boosters and raptor engines which are designed to provide more thrust at liftoff. The redesigned propulsion system should now be able to carry more fuel for long-duration missions.“The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test,” SpaceX said in a statement.The SpaceX Super Heavy Booster and Starship spacecraft stand on Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase(Image: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock)21st May21:15 BSTThe explosive history of Starship test flights All eyes will be on the SpaceX Starship V3 as it blasts off from the launch facility in Texas. This will be the 12th test flight of the massive craft, but previous attempts have not been without incident.During two separate test flights of Starship V2 in January and March 2025 the rocket exploded near populated areas east of Florida, with debris hitting roadways in the Turks and Caicos islands.Then in May 2025 the Starship spacecraft spun out of control as it descended toward its landing site in the Indian Ocean. In that mission the Super Heavy booster also exploded as it attempted to land early in the mission.A Starship spacecraft also exploded during a ground test last June sparking an emergency response from authorities in nearby Brownsville, Texas. During another ground test in November another explosion occurred as a Starship V3 rocket underwent a fueling test.SpaceX has previously said that its process of “rapid iterative development” means building and deploying prototypes quickly and accepting added risks during tests.21st May20:00 BST'The single biggest remaining problem for Starship?'Starship will be launching two satellites that will take pictures of the heatshield, to test methods of analysing Starship's shield readiness for return to the launch site on future missions, SpaceX has said.This is because the Starship craft is designed to be reusable and one of trickiest problems to overcome is making sure the heatshield is up to repeated trips through the Earth’s atmosphere."The single biggest remaining problem for Starship? It's having the heatshield be reusable," Musk said in February on the Dwarkesh Podcast."No one has ever made a reusable orbital heatshield," he added. "So, the heatshield's got to make it through the ascent phase without shucking a bunch of tiles, and then it's got to come back in and also not lose a bunch of tiles or overheat the main airframe."Heat shield testing(Image: Space X)21st May19:26 BSTWhat is being tested on this flight? Tonight’s suborbital test flight is designed to show that Starship V3 can successfully launch, separate from its booster and then splash down in the Indian Ocean.During the flight the rocket will release 20 dummy Starlink Internet satellites, as well as two operational Starlink satellites that will test hardware for an upcoming Starlink model.The working satellites will scan the spacecraft's heat shield and send images back to Earth. If all goes well SpaceX also hopes to try and relight one of Starship’s Raptor engines while it is in space.As it enters the atmosphere, Starship will be put through its paces, performing a series of manoeuvres including a flip before it splashes down.21st May18:59 BSTWhat is new about Starship V3?This is the first launch of Starship Version 3 which features several upgrades compared to previous designs - and there is a lot riding on the mission's success.“For those who think this is simply another repeat test flight, the engineering changes under the rocket ‘hood’ are substantial,” says Joseph Gonzalez, an associate professor of practice in aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a former engineer for NASA’s Artemis program.“V3 is taller, exceeds 18 million pounds of total thrust and introduces the new Raptor 3 engines,” he told Scientific American.This test flight is a step toward qualifying the vehicle as the lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program and operational missions to launch SpaceX's Starlink satellites.This is the 12th test flight(Image: Space X)21st May18:30 BSTSpaceX on track for today’s flight test windowSpaceX is still proceeding towards a window that opens at 5:30pm Central Time (11.30pm UK time).The 1.5-hour window is the first time this year that SpaceX will attempt to launch its Starship prototype rocket, with today’s launch the first mission for the new upgraded build.All things being well, the flight should last about an hour. It will be suborbital and neither the Super Heavy booster or Ship upper stage will attempt to land back on the pad, with both splashing down at sea.A live stream of the launch will be shown on the Mirror website and SpaceX's website, as well as the company's official X page and YouTube channel.Content cannot be displayed without consent21st May17:57 BSTWhy is SpaceX targeting Mars?SpaceX has laid out its reason why it wants to put human life on Mars, saying it is "one of Earth's closest habitable neighbours"."At an average distance of 140 million miles, Mars is one of Earth's closest habitable neighborus. Mars is about half again as far from the Sun as Earth is, so it still has decent sunlight. It is a little cold, but we can warm it up," says a statement from SpaceX."Its atmosphere is primarily CO2 with some nitrogen and argon and a few other trace elements, which means that we can grow plants on Mars just by compressing the atmosphere. Gravity on Mars is about 38% of that of Earth, so you would be able to lift heavy things and bound around. Furthermore, the day is remarkably close to that of Earth."21st May17:29 BSTSpaceX aims to eventually send 'several thousand Starships' with crew to MarsSpaceX is aiming to not just send people to Mars but create a self-sufficient city on the planet.It states on its website: "Establishing a self-sufficient city on Mars will require upwards of one million people and millions of tonnes of cargo to be delivered to the Red planet."By launching more than 10 times per day to maximize transfer windows that open up every approximately 26 months, several thousand Starships will ultimately transfer crew and equipment to build a lasting presence on another world."SpaceX aims to send people to Mars(Image: ESA/MPS et al. / SWNS)21st May16:57 BSTSpaceX and Blue Origin both building lunar landersSpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are both building lunar landers that NASA could use for a planned Moon landing in 2028."Starship will land humans on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years under NASA’s Artemis missions," states SpaceX."Designed to deliver the building blocks for a permanent lunar presence, Starshop will land crew members at a region near the lunar South Pole to conduct moonwalks and survey the likely area of future Moon base."Starship - Designed for interplanetary transport, Starship is singularly capable of delivering the astronauts, supplies, equipment and science payloads needed for establishing a permanent, sustainable presence on the Moon."21st May16:49 BST'One of the most profound things that ever happened...'“If there are historians in the future, they’ll look back at Starship and say it was one of the most profound things that ever happened,” Musk said in a podcast interview last December.21st May15:53 BSTStarship could be used by NASA to land people on the MoonSpaceX's Starship, which it is launching later today, may be the type that NASA uses to land astronauts back on the Moon.The test is the 12th Starship flight but the first launch of the new third-generation, dubbed V3, which is bigger, more powerful and a step closer to being fully reusable.21st May15:26 BSTWhen is the launch set to take place?A live stream of the launch will be shown on the Mirror website and SpaceX's website, as well as the company's official X page and YouTube channel.It will start broadcasting the event about 45 minutes before lift-off, which is currently scheduled for 5:30pm local time (11:30pm BST) today.The SpaceX Super Heavy Booster and Starship spacecraft stand on Orbital Launch Pad 2 at Starbase(Image: Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock)21st May15:02 BSTStarship launch will have more eyes on it than ever with IPOStarship is to launch close to SpaceX's IPO which means there will be more eyes than ever on it - including prospective investors.The prospectus did not put a dollar figure on the amount Elon Musk hopes to raise from shares, but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so.SpaceX plans for Starship to play a central role in the future of its space-based internet business, Starlink, as well as offering services to NASA and the US military which means there’s a lot riding on its success.21st May14:32 BSTSpaceX's 11th test flight success saw it land in Indian OceanSpaceX 11th test flight was last October was a success where it thundered into the evening sky from the southern tip of Texas.The booster peeled away and made a controlled entry into the Gulf of Mexico as planned, with the spacecraft skimming space before descending into the Indian Ocean. Nothing was recovered.“Hey, welcome back to Earth, Starship,” SpaceX’s Dan Huot announced as employees cheered. “What a day.”It was the latest test flight for a full-scale Starship ahead of today's, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk intends to use to send people to Mars.SpaceX is planning a mission to Mars(Image: AFP via Getty Images)21st May13:54 BSTMusk wants Starship to make voyage to Mars by end of this yearElon Musk said a year ago that he foresaw Starship making its first uncrewed voyage to Mars at the end of 2026.A successful test flight would help reinforce SpaceX's case that Starship, the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, is nearing commercial readiness after years of explosive setbacks and development delays.Multiple Starship tankers would be needed to fill one Starship with enough fuel for a moon landing under SpaceX's proposed moonshot plan.That is part of a $3 billion-plus contract SpaceX won in 2021 under NASA's Artemis programme, the US effort to return astronauts to the surface of themoon later this decade for the first time since 1972 at the end of the Apollo era. Those plans put Starship at the center of a new space race with China, which aims for a crewed lunar landing of its own in 2030.21st May13:20 BSTWeather 'currently 55% favourable' for lift-offSpaceX says it has a 90 minute window open for the launch with weather at the moment favourable.It wrote on X: "The 90-minute test window opens at 5:30 p.m. CT (11.30pm BST) with live coverage starting ~45 minutes before liftoff. Weather is currently 55% favourable for liftoff."Content cannot be displayed without consent21st May12:55 BSTBooster and spacecraft set to make control landings in oceanThe Super Heavy is expected to come down in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after blastoff, with Starship's "exciting landing," as SpaceX refers to it, is anticipated about an hour later in the Indian Ocean.Before that landing, plans call for Starship's payload to release a clutch of 20 Starlink simulators, plus two actual satellites modified to scan the spacecraft's heat shield and transmit data to operators on the ground during re-entry.The Super Heavy rocket booster will vault the ship toward space before breaking away. Both booster and spacecraft will be on suborbital trajectories before attempting to make controlled landings in the ocean.21st May12:28 BSTUpgrades on rocket include greater thrust One of the principal upgrades to the booster rocket is a revamping of its 33 Raptor engines to produce greater thrust from a design that weighs significantly less.The propulsion system of the upper-stage Starship has similarly been refined for long-duration missions, with mechanisms to allow for ship-to-ship docking, refueling in space and increased maneuverability.A key measure of success for future test outings will be post-flight recovery of Starship and the Super Heavy booster, which are being developed as reusable vehicles.SpaceX said it would not attempt to safely land or retrieve either portion of the spacecraft from this launch. But test objectives include execution of several return-flight maneuvers by the booster and Starship ‌itself, including ⁠controlled landing burns before each vehicle splashes down at sea.The new design is set to mean greater thrust(Image: ZUMAPRESS.com / Zuma Press / Avalon)21st May12:28 BSTSpaceX launch comes as Musk plans to inject money with IPOElon Musk is preparing for the launch after announcing one of the biggest stock sales ever by making SpaceX publicA filing shows that his SpaceX lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue, and the losses kept piling up at the start of this year, too.The prospectus did not put a figure on the amount Musk hopes to raise, but various reports have put it at $75 billion or so. An offering of that size would easily surpass the current title holder, Saudi Aramco, the oil giant that went public seven years ago and raised $26 billion.SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has said the money will help finance projects to put people on the moon and Mars in its quest to make humans an intergalactic species as they face existential threats that could wipe out civilization.‌