SpaceX launched the third test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, Starbase facility at 8:25 a.m. CT (9:25 a.m. ET).
The rocket was scheduled for an hour-long test flight. SpaceX is trying to show that the Starship can carry out a controlled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere.
RELATED: SpaceX Attempts Second Starship Launch
Future Starship missions will go to the moon under NASA’s Artemis program. The rocket is designed to “deliver payloads farther and at a lower marginal cost per launch than our current Falcon vehicles,” SpaceX says.
Watch Starship liftoff and the test flight, here:
Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/FaNcasuKaq
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
Watch Starship’s third flight test → https://t.co/bJFjLCiTbK https://t.co/1u46r769Vp
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2024
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted a congratulations to the team on X.
Starship reached orbital velocity!
Congratulations @SpaceX team!!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2024
According to Space.com, hundreds of spectators, many of them on Spring Break at South Padre Island, were on hand to see the spectacle.
“This flight pretty much just started, but we’re farther than we’ve ever been before,” SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot said just after liftoff in a livestream. “We’ve got a starship, not just in space, but on its coast phase into space.”