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starship rocket: Starship Flight 9 Test: Will SpaceX be successful now? Here's launch date, time, site, Starship size, flight duration and how to watch live

starship rocket: Starship Flight 9 Test: Will SpaceX be successful now? Here's launch date, time, site, Starship size, flight duration and how to watch live

Time of India25-05-2025

New Test Launch Date, Time and Site
Previous Failures in 2024
Possible Backup Dates and Launch Window
Focus on Reuse of Booster
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Starship's Size and Purpose
How to Watch Live?
Viewing Options in South Texas
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Flight Duration
Booster Recovery Plan Changed
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FAQs
SpaceX will attempt its ninth Starship rocket flight on May 27. The flight is named Starship Flight 9. This mission follows two earlier launches that ended in failure. SpaceX hopes to test the reuse of its massive Super Heavy booster The launch is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, May 27. The time is set for 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT). The flight will take place at the Starbase site in South Texas. This will be the ninth flight for Starship. It will be the first to reuse a Super Heavy booster.Starship flights earlier in January and March failed. In both cases, the booster returned to Earth successfully. However, the upper stage of the rocket failed shortly after launch. These were Flights 7 and 8.The official time for the launch is 7:30 p.m. EDT. SpaceX has not confirmed a specific launch window. In previous launches, it used 30-minute windows. That would allow a launch between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. EDT. Local authorities have closed roads through May 29. Backup days may be May 28 or 29.This launch will test the reuse of the Super Heavy booster. The same booster launched Flight 7 in January. Four of its 33 engines were replaced for this new test. This will be the first time SpaceX tries to fly a used booster.When fully assembled, Starship stands 400 feet tall. It is the largest rocket built. It is designed for full reuse. SpaceX aims to use it for missions to Earth orbit, the moon and Mars. NASA has selected Starship to carry Artemis astronauts to the moon in 2027.SpaceX will show the launch on its official webcast. It will begin 30 minutes before liftoff. The livestream will be available on SpaceX's website and its X account. NASASpaceflight.com will also broadcast the event on YouTube.People in South Texas can view the launch in person. Good locations include Isla Blanca Park on South Padre Island. Port Isabel is another option. Visitors should prepare for traffic delays.The mission is expected to last just over one hour. It will attempt to follow the same path as Flight 8. The upper stage will release eight Starlink simulators . These will burn up on reentry. SpaceX will also attempt to restart one Raptor engine in space.Unlike previous missions, the booster will not return to Starbase. It will try to land softly in the Gulf of Mexico. It will then be discarded. This is because it is the first reused booster.Yes, SpaceX will stream the launch live on its website, X account, and X TV. NASASpaceflight.com will also show the event with prelaunch coverage.The Starlink simulators are meant to test satellite deployment. They will follow a suborbital path and burn up in Earth's atmosphere after reentry.

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Musk vs Trump: Elon Musk fan Ian Miles Cheon asks him to move space program to UAE
Musk vs Trump: Elon Musk fan Ian Miles Cheon asks him to move space program to UAE

Time of India

time24 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Musk vs Trump: Elon Musk fan Ian Miles Cheon asks him to move space program to UAE

Image generated by AI for creative and illustrative purposes only There's always one tweet that distills geopolitical fantasy into 280 characters. This time, it came from Elon Musk loyalist Ian Miles Cheong: 'Elon Musk should simply move his entire SpaceX operation to the United Arab Emirates. The UAE stands at the forefront of technological progress and mankind's ascent to the stars.' The idea sounds far-fetched. But it also speaks to something very real: the UAE's growing ambition to become a serious player in the global space race, just as Musk finds himself increasingly disillusioned with Washington, and estranged from his on-again-off-again political ally, Donald Trump. A Rift at the Edge of Orbit The Musk–Trump relationship, once a spectacle of anti-establishment synergy, has hit turbulence. Musk, long the poster boy for public-private innovation, turned sharply against Trump's latest bloated federal spending bill, calling it a 'disgusting abomination.' Trump, ever retaliatory, suggested the US could save 'billions' by cutting off Musk's federal contracts. In MAGA-speak, that's a declaration of war. As Tesla and X stocks tanked, erasing over $150 billion in market value, Musk threatened to decommission the Dragon capsule, the spacecraft that connects Earth to the International Space Station. That post came just minutes after Trump floated cancelling SpaceX subsidies. For a brief moment, the world's most influential entrepreneur looked ready to break orbit, not just from Earth, but from America. That's when the UAE entered the chat. A Desert with Dreams of the Stars While the Musk-Trump bromance combusts on X, the United Arab Emirates has been quietly, and not so quietly, building the infrastructure of a spacefaring nation. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai is now home to a replica Falcon 9 booster, a symbolic tribute to Musk's engineering triumph. In 2020, the UAE launched its Hope probe to Mars, making it the first Arab nation to embark on an interplanetary mission. It reached Martian orbit in 2021. Unlike many space programs that began with Cold War posturing, the UAE's ambitions are rooted in a long-term economic and technological vision. Its Mars 2117 project imagines a human settlement on the Red Planet within a century. The country has invested heavily in satellite tech, astronaut training (two UAE astronauts have now flown to space), and international partnerships with NASA , Roscosmos, and JAXA. And most crucially, it has money. Oil money. Sovereign wealth fund money. The kind of money that could theoretically bankroll a massive SpaceX relocation, if only US export laws allowed it. Reality Check: Can Musk Really Move? While the fantasy of a SpaceX launch site in Abu Dhabi sparks excitement, it hits a hard wall named ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Aerospace technology like Falcon rockets and Dragon capsules is tightly controlled by the US government, especially because of SpaceX's work with NASA and the Pentagon. Relocating operations overseas would require navigating a minefield of national security laws, intellectual property battles, and contract obligations. Then there's the infrastructure: SpaceX's launch pads in Florida and Texas, its Starlink deployment network, and its deep entanglement with the US military-industrial complex. Even for someone as unpredictable as Musk, uprooting an entire space ecosystem is more fever dream than flight plan. But what is serious, and worth watching, is how quickly the idea caught fire. Because when powerful partnerships fall apart, when the emperor of disruption turns on the emperor of MAGA, imagination fills the vacuum. And the UAE, with its deep pockets and deeper ambitions, is perfectly poised to be the world's favourite hypothetical. 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But the fact that people think he could is a testament to what the UAE has managed to build, credibility. In the span of two decades, it has gone from oil-rich sandbox to serious contender in the celestial stakes. Its universities are training aerospace engineers. Its astronauts are flying with NASA. Its space centre has a waiting list for international collaborations. So, while the Dragon capsule remains on US soil, the battle for the future of space may not be limited to the US, Russia, and China anymore. The UAE is still in the early innings, but it's playing to win. And as for Musk and Trump? Their Cold War is far from over. But in the echoes of that fallout, a new contender has quietly entered the arena, bathed in desert light, aiming for the stars.

Did you know?
Did you know?

Time of India

time38 minutes ago

  • Time of India

Did you know?

Astronomers have discovered a massive planet orbiting an unusually small star, defying current theories of planetary formation. The star, TOI-6894 , is located about 240 light-years away in the constellation Leo and has just 21% the mass of the Sun. Yet, it hosts a gas giant roughly the size of Saturn much larger than expected for such a small star. This challenges existing models, which suggest that small stars form only small, rocky planets like Earth. Forming giant planets typically requires large amounts of material in a protoplanetary disk, which small stars aren't thought to possess. 'It's hard to build a giant planet in such conditions,' said study co-author Vincent Van Eylen. The planet completes an orbit in just three days, lying 40 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun. Despite its close orbit, it's cooler than typical 'hot Jupiters.' Its mass is 56% hat of Saturn and 17% of Jupiter. Data from NASA's TESS and the ESO's VLT were used for the discovery, with further observations planned using the James Webb Space Telescope.

As per plan, Shubhanshu Shukla to dock with space station on June 11
As per plan, Shubhanshu Shukla to dock with space station on June 11

Time of India

timean hour ago

  • Time of India

As per plan, Shubhanshu Shukla to dock with space station on June 11

ORLANDO (FLORIDA): India's Group Captain and other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) set for launch from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on June 10, will dock with the International Space Station (ISS), several hours later on June 11. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now 'The crew will dock to the space station on June 11 at approximately 12.30pm Eastern Time,' as per Axiom Space. The launch, which was earlier scheduled on June 8, was pushed to June 10. '...This shift allows Nasa, SpaceX and Axiom teams to account for predicted inclement weather during the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft transport in addition to completing final processing of the spacecraft ahead of launch,' Nasa said about the June 10 launch. Peggy Whitson, former Nasa astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the mission, while Isro astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. Going by the timelines both Nasa and Axiom have publicly committed to, the ongoing spat between SpaceX founder Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump — a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Ax-4 crew aboard a SpaceX Dragon — is unlikely to have any impact on this particular mission. The Ax-4 mission will mark SpaceX's 53rd Dragon mission, 15th human spaceflight mission to the ISS, and 48th trip to the station including both crew and cargo missions. Shukla, who is among the four astronaut-designates part of India's , became part of Ax-4 as part of a joint Isro-Nasa endeavour which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his official visit to the US in 2023. India has so far spent at least Rs 548 crore on the mission. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Other than launch, the expenditure also includes training of both Shukla and his back-up Group Captain Prashanth Nair, another Gaganyaan astronaut-designate. Once he is onboard the ISS, Shukla will conduct seven experiments developed by Indian academic institutions, and five additional experiments with Nasa, as has been confirmed by Dana Weigel, manager, ISS Programme, Nasa. Reacting to this, Sudeesh Balan, project director, Isro, had said earlier: 'The seven experiments we had announced earlier are mostly biological and are those proposed by Indian scientists. These will be conducted by Shukla. Aside from these, there will be five experiments in partnership with Nasa on human research programmes. Shukla will be participating in them.' The SpaceX Dragon to be used for Ax-4 will be a 'brand-new spacecraft, SpaceX's director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker has confirmed, adding that it will receive a nickname from the crew. Ax-4 commander Whitson said last week that the new name will be announced soon

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