SpaceX Starship rocket launch: Watch the high-stakes 4th test flight as it blasts off today

Last week, SpaceX announced that the fourth test flight of its super heavy lift launch vehicle Starship will be on Thursday, June 6 .



The launch window opens at 7 a.m. CT, and the rocket will lift off from the company’s facility at Boca Chica, Texas.



SpaceX will live stream the launch on its website and X account.



Elon Musk’s private spaceflight company has made it clear that for this fourth test flight, it is going to focus on re-entry—something it hasn’t successfully achieved for either stage.



The plan is for the Super Heavy booster to make a controlled drop into the Gulf of Mexico, while Starship will ascend, coast for a period of time, and then re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere for an Indian Ocean landing.



Neither stage will be recovered during this flight test.



The stakes feel higher for this flight test than for previous ones. While SpaceX has been making incremental progress with Starship, the company is contracted for multiple high-profile projects using the spacecraft and launch vehicle combination. Last week, Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire, canceled his much-publicized Starship tourist flight around the moon because it was taking too long. The flight was announced in 2018.



But it’s more than just disgruntled billionaires: NASA is relying on Starship for HLS, the human landing system, that will take Artemis astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon’s surface on Artemis III, which is scheduled as soon as September 2026. HLS is just a modified version of Starship. 



Starship hasn’t even achieved orbit yet, nor has it managed successful re-entry. This is just a test flight, but the pressure is really starting to mount.