Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Starship has two parts: the lower-stage super heavy booster, and the upper-stage spaceship which will eventually carry astronauts and cargo into space.

The aim is to be able to catch both parts on the launch pad so that both booster and spaceship can be rapidly refurbished and sent back into space as quickly as possible, as happens with airplanes, which is something that would dramatically reduce the costs of space travel.

For test flight six, entire sections of heat shield tiles have been removed on either side of the upper spaceship section. Those section are positions that might have hooks or protrusions attached in future flight tests when SpaceX tries to catch it as it returns from space.

Image source, Getty Images

Elon Musk, SpaceX's owner, is joined at the launch by President-elect Donald Trump.

Joining the pair are senators Bill Hagerty and Ted Cruz, as well as Donald Trump Jr and congressman Ronny Jackson.

Earlier, crowds lined a road on the way to the site, waving flags and signs in support of Trump, who arrived in a motorcade.

All being well, we'll soon be watching Starship take off on its latest test flight. But what is it?

The SpaceX rocket is a two-stage vehicle. The “Ship” is the uppermost part. This is where equipment and crew will eventually be held for future missions.

That sits atop a booster, called Super Heavy.

Thirty-three engines at the base of this booster produce around 74 meganewtons of thrust. To put that into perspective, it’s almost 700 times as powerful as the thrust generated by the common passenger plane, the Airbus A320neo.

Both the Ship and the Super Heavy booster are fuelled with a mixture of icy-cold liquid methane and liquid oxygen fuel, known as methalox.

When the upper stage separates in space, Super Heavy flips over while falling back towards Earth.

We're seeing live pictures now of the rocket, ahead of its flight at 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT).

With smoke billowing out against the sun of Texas, it's not long now until lift off.

Image source, Getty Images

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Engineers have upgraded the software for the catching manoeuvre after the founder and CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, revealed in a post on X, external that the flight control team was one second away from aborting the attempt.

In audio from that social media post, one of the engineers speaking to Musk said “we were one second away from that tripping and telling the rocket to abort and try to crash into the ground next to the tower,” to which Musk can be heard saying “wow”.

The conversation is heard over video of Musk’s progress in the online game Diablo IV, where he is talking to three unnamed SpaceX engineers about Starship’s fifth test flight.

The issue seems to have been over the software that monitors the progress of the super heavy booster while in flight. It seemed to have detected non-ideal parameters.

That near miss has guided flight teams for this test flight according to one of the engineers in the conversation.

"I wanted to be really up-front about scary shit that happened and what we're doing about it, because I think that's our focus on getting to Flight 6”.

Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent

Starship’s first test flight was just 19 months ago, when it was deliberately exploded four minutes after launch because of multiple engine failures.

Those watching the stream of the launch were surprised not only by the early abort, but also the cheering and happy faces of the SpaceX employees, many of whom had worked for years toward the launch.

It was a similar story for the second test last year, which was exploded – or underwent a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” as SpaceX would describe it- after eight minutes – and yet again lots of clapping and cheering from the staff.

We now know that SpaceX's philosophy is to test fast, fail fast and learn fast.

The data from the failed first two test flights propelled the firm faster to make the changes needed for three further successful flights, each one achieving more of the development targets – culminating in the impressive catching of a 20-story high booster on the launch pad last month.

It was an astonishing moment that SpaceX hope to repeat today during Starship’s sixth test flight.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump and Elon Musk became firm political allies this year during the US presidential campaign.

And President-elect Trump will be in Texas today to watch the launch of Musk's Starship.

"I’m heading to the Great State of Texas to watch the launch of the largest object ever to be elevated, not only to Space, but simply by lifting off the ground. Good luck to @ElonMusk and the Great Patriots involved in this incredible project!" Trump said on social media.

Musk officially endorsed the former president for a second term in 2024 after his attempted assassination and became one of the campaign's foremost backers and influencers.

The president-elect has picked Musk to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (or Doge - like the dog-related meme) for his incoming administration.

And SpaceX has more than $8bn-worth of ongoing contracts with the US government, according to public contracting sites.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the SpaceX launch of its Starship spacecraft.

The launch is scheduled during a 30 minute window starting at 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT), weather permitting.

And President-elect Donald Trump is heading to Texas to watch the launch. Trump and SpaceX owner Elon Musk are close political allies.

We will streaming the launch, so click the watch live button at the top of this page and watch along with us.