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What this is
This is a practice flight. SpaceX is flying a Starship from SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA to learn whether the rocket behaves. The cargo matters, and so does the simple question: did it work?
SpaceX is flying a Starship from Orbital Launch Pad 2, SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA. Mission: Flight 12. 12th test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle. Maiden Flight of Starship V3. The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test. The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned. For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly. Planned orbit: Suborbital. Status: Launch Successful. The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s). The published time can still slip. Rockets wait for weather, boats, and the range.
From here
Too far to see
You will not see this rocket from Centennial, Colorado. It is about 1,039 miles southeast. The broadcast is the view.
That is too far for the flame and, for almost every launch, too far for the high-altitude plume. Dim the lights and watch together anyway.