SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas - SpaceX's highly anticipated second test flight of the massive Starship rocket will have to wait another day, and it appears many of those who made the trek to see the rocket launch are willing to stick around for the show.
Starship, SpaceX's next-generation launch vehicle, is gearing up for its second test flight, and groups of people from around the world have arrived in the southernmost parts of Texas to watch it take off. Now, the delay means travelers from far-flung countries like Canada and Poland are having to decide whether it's worth staying this weekend.
Related: SpaceX is postponing the second test launch of the Starship until November 18 to replace the rocket part
SpaceX is targeting a 20-minute period on Saturday, November 18, starting at 8 a.m. EST (1 p.m. GMT; 7 a.m. local time in Texas), according to the company's mission page, and you can watch it live here on Space.com.
The launch indeed has some historical significance. If successful, Starship's second test flight will be its first foray into space, making it the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. There is also a lot of driving on this test flight. Starship already has a handful of paying customers, including NASA, which has tapped SpaceX for the Human Landing Services (HLS) contract for Artemis 3, a mission that will land astronauts on the moon for the first time since the 1970s. NASA is currently targeting late 2025 for the launch of Artemis 3, giving SpaceX a fast and busy timeline to take Starship from a test vehicle to a crew-rated lunar spacecraft.
The first launch of the fully stacked rocket, which includes a Superheavy booster with 33 first stage motors, took place on April 20 this year (2023). That flight was aborted about four minutes after takeoff, due in part to a staging glitch when Starship failed to separate from Superheavy during the flight. A solution to that problem, the addition of a water-flooding system on the launch pad, and final review, approval, and licensing by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) filled the gap between Starship's first launch and now.
The launch was originally scheduled for this morning (Nov. 17), but an issue with one of Superheavy's grid-fin actuators caused SpaceX operators to postpone it another day, according to a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, from the CEO of SpaceX. Elon Musk. To access and repair the affected components, SpaceX unstacked the vehicle Thursday afternoon.
With viewing capabilities unlike any other launch facility in the world, SpaceX's Starbase is located along a single, publicly accessible street leading to the beach on Boca Chica Island. And as long as there are no potentially dangerous operations taking place, anyone can simply walk in within just a few hundred meters of the spaceship and the various buildings associated with its manufacture. The day before launch is no different, except perhaps because of the growing crowds of people arriving in anticipation of a launch.
With an official postponement looming at the start of the weekend, the mood at Starbase has remained largely positive, with few if any going home early due to the change in schedule.
Amanda Schmidt and Lauren Krahwinkel met Thursday while walking through the sand dunes that lay between the rocket and the ocean, and spoke with Space.com about their thoughts on Starship. "She's going to call in sick," Schmidt said of Krahwinkel when both were asked if they planned to extend their trip to Starbase. "We'll see," Krahwinkel responded. Both women consider SpaceX and its mission to turn humanity into an interplanetary species to have historical significance.
"I started watching the YouTube videos of tests [SpaceX was] which I did in 2020, during the pandemic, and that really fueled my enthusiasm for space and spaceflight," Krahwinkel said. She drove 20 hours from East Tennessee to see Starship in person. "Watching this now," she said, "I just think this has the potential to really reshape the future of the next few decades, what our world, what our universe will look like, and I can't wait to to see it happen."
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Jana Schmidt also walked through the dunes around Starship on Thursday. She is better known on Starbase as 'Space Mom'. Schmidt has been hanging around the SpaceX rocket ranch since the beginning and has seen the evolution of the facility's development. "It was certainly very different then, much more access," Schmidt claims. She lives just a six-hour drive from Boca Chica, west of Houston, and tries to visit Starbase about every quarter.
On how she came to be known as the Space Mom, she says, "I think I'm probably old enough to be the mother of a lot of these people, so my maternal instincts always kick in. And I always have snacks, and I share mostly the snacks."
Another SpaceX fan from Houston, Bseeshma, also decided to stay an extra day. He drove to Starship's first launch in April and says it was a good experience despite the delay. "I have been following the Starship program for the past three years," he told Space.com, adding, "I also follow Elon Musk's companies, and I am a big space fanatic."
Zack Golden runs the YouTube channel CSI Starbase. His work schedule allows him to travel for two weeks every month, creating a chance that he may or may not be there when a particular launch is announced. "Since this one happens to come out where I can actually be here, I decided I had to come because statistically I probably won't be able to make the next one," Golden told Space.com.
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Golden, like many, is inspired by the possibilities that Starship offers for the future. People support SpaceX like others support their favorite sports teams, and the disappointment that comes with something like missing a launch can feel as heavy as a burden. Golden's flight home was originally scheduled for later Saturday, and he is hopeful he can make it to that morning's launch. He's not sure if he can stay longer.
"I feel like I have to sit here and look after the super-heavy crew to make sure they change the grid fin tonight because an extra day of delay will be really disappointing."
