SpaceX hoping to launch Starship farther in third test flight

SpaceX’s Starship was poised for a third uncrewed test launch on Thursday.

SpaceX's Starship, a futuristic vehicle designed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was poised for a third uncrewed test launch on Thursday that Elon Musk's company hopes will carry it farther than before, even if it ends up exploding once again in flight.

The spacecraft, mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, was due for liftoff as early as 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) from SpaceX's Starbase launch site on the Gulf of Mexico near Boca Chica, Texas.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration just granted a license for the test flight on Wednesday afternoon.

Unlike the first two test flights last year, aimed mainly at demonstrating that the spacecraft's two stages can separate after launch, the third test flight will involve an attempt to open Starship's payload door and reignite one of its engines in space.

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Each of the previous flights were routed toward a planned crash landing near the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific, while the latest flight is targeting a splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean.

Even if it achieves more of its test objectives than before, SpaceX acknowledges a high probability that Starship's latest flight will end up like the first two, with the vehicle blowing itself to bits before its intended trajectory is complete.