Space X to launch ‘Starship,’ the world’s largest rocket : NPR

Commercial aerospace company SpaceX is preparing to test a giant stainless steel rocket. The machine could one day send humans to the moon, Mars and beyond.

But first, it has to fly. The first launch attempt will take place in South Texas over a 150-minute period that opens at 8 a.m. ET on Monday. In a tweet, SpaceX says it’s targeting around 9:20 a.m. Eastern for takeoff.

Starship is unlike any other rocketand SpaceX admit that the first test flight will be extremely risky.

“It’s a very complex machine, it has a lot of different parts,” said Paulo Lozano, director of MIT’s space propulsion lab. The rocket is bigger than any rocket ever built. Success will depend on dozens of motors, working in perfect synchrony.

The stakes can’t be higher, at least to hear SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talk about the task.

“Eventually the Sun will expand and destroy all life,” Musk said as he stood in front of the giant rocket about a year ago. “It’s very important – necessary in the long run – that we become a multi-planetary species.”

Musk hopes Starship will provide an important step towards becoming a multi-planet universe, by allowing large payloads to be sent to orbit cheaply. His goal is that Starship will one day transport the first humans to Mars.

SpaceX also has a business interest in seeing its giant rocket fly. Starship can be used to launch a large number of “Starlink” satellites that provide the company’s internet. Tim Farrar, president of TMF Associates, a telecommunications consulting firm, said Starlink is seen as a key part of SpaceX’s future, and that Starship will allow the network to grow rapidly.

NASA hopes Starship can be used to send astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

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NASA hopes Starship can be used to send astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.

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NASA is also pay for SpaceX to develop a version of Starship to visit the moon, although that mission may still be several years away.

Farrar noted that the Starship launch comes at a difficult time for the tech industry. SpaceX is currently trying to raise more capital to further develop Starship and Starlink.

For now, investors seem happy to let SpaceX test its massive, potentially interplanetary rocket. But he said that if the launch fails and Starship continues to be slower than planned, it could affect SpaceX’s entire business, especially in the current financial climate.

SpaceX seems to understand the risks. When the company recently posted a timeline for Monday’s test flight, it replaced “take off” in its mission timeline with two words: “excitement guaranteed.”