Starship Watch · Flight 15

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SpaceX's official webcast starts around T-30 min. Until then, the NASASpaceflight tab has live pad cameras.

LAUNCH IN

T-00:00:00

-- • 75 min window

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Countdown Ascent Booster home Orbit Ship home

BOOSTER CATCH

T+6:35 · back at the tower

ORBIT

~90 min per lap at 275 km

SHIP CATCH

T+22:32:34

New here? Tonight in 4 steps

Times are in your time zone.

Liftoff

All 33 engines on the booster light at once and push the biggest rocket ever built off the pad in Texas.

Booster comes home

After about 2.5 minutes the two parts separate. The booster flips around, flies back, and the tower tries to catch it with its giant arms.

Ship reaches orbit

The top part keeps going to space, releases 26 Starlink internet satellites, and circles Earth about 14 times.

First-ever ship catch

Tomorrow the ship comes back through the fire of reentry, flips upright, and tries to land in the tower's arms. Never done before.

Mission timeline

SpaceX's planned times. Your local clock. Lights up as it happens.

ENGINE LAB

Ignition

33 Raptor 3 engines. Run the startup sequence, drag the throttle, or tap engines below to kill them.

THRUST80.9 MN

ENGINES33 / 33

Side view of Super Heavy's engine skirt. Exhaust drawn live; brightness follows engines lit and throttle.

33/ 33 lit

Orange bar = thrust. White line = rocket's weight.

Thrust80.9 MN

Pounds of force18.2M

vs Saturn V stage 12.4×

THROTTLE100%

40% (lowest Raptor can go)100%

LIFTOFF

Each Raptor 3 makes 250 tonnes of thrust. A fueled stack weighs about 5,000 t, so it needs at least 21 engines at full throttle just to leave the pad. Rings are 3 / 10 / 20; which inner engines run in each phase is simplified.

INSIDE THE ENGINE

How a Raptor works

Full-flow staged combustion: the hardest engine cycle there is. Before 2014, only two designs like it had ever been tested, and neither flew.

STEP 1 OF 6

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Liquid oxygen Liquid methane Hot oxygen-rich gas Hot methane-rich gas

EVOLUTION

Less stuff. More power.

SpaceX's trick: delete parts. Every version pulls more of the plumbing inside the engine itself.

A Raptor 1 engine in 2020, covered in external pipes and wiring — **Raptor 1** · real photo, 2020

Raptor 2 era engines at Starbase in 2022 — **Raptor 2 era** · Starbase, 2022

Raptor 3Clean and smooth: the plumbing is inside. SpaceX's own photos aren't licensed for reuse, so see them on spacex.com ↗

Raptor 1Raptor 2Raptor 3

185tonnes thrust

2,080kg engine

89× its own weight

How big is it?

Tap one to compare.

Starship stands 124.4 m (408 ft) tall.

Every Starship flight

9 successes, 5 failures, 3 booster catches. Tap a flight.

Success Tower catch Controlled splashdown Lost Didn't get there