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Liftoff
Sun, Dec 31, 00:00 UTC
Live coverage Dec 30, 23:00 UTC → Dec 31, 01:30 UTC
The order of events in a Starship test flight, from SpaceX’s published flight plans. A guide, not live tracking: nothing here is ticked off by the clock.
The Super Heavy booster ignites its Raptor engines and climbs away from the tower with the Starship upper stage on top.
The moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure on the vehicle during ascent.
Starship separates with hot staging: the ship lights its own engines while still attached, then pulls away from the booster.
The booster relights some of its engines to reverse course toward its landing point.
Depending on the flight plan, the booster either returns to the launch tower to be caught or makes a landing burn over the water and splashes down. The launch page links SpaceX’s plan for this flight.
The ship shuts down its engines once it reaches the trajectory the flight plan calls for.
What happens in space changes from flight to flight: deploying satellites, relighting a Raptor engine in space, or other tests. Only what the published flight plan names is expected.
The ship enters the atmosphere belly first, protected by its heat shield tiles, and steers its descent with flaps.
The ship flips and lights its engines for a landing burn before touching down in the ocean, or at a landing site when the plan calls for it.
Every entry is a change we recorded, not a forecast. Our sync checks Launch Library 2 every 15 minutes, so a time is when we saw the change and can trail the real moment. The liftoff time is the one the launch record states.
Nothing has changed on this launch since we started recording it. Status changes, date moves and the liftoff will appear here as they are recorded.
Checks for new entries every minute while the launch window is open.
Starship (SpaceX)
Starship is two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage, usually just called the ship. Both run on Raptor engines burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen, and both are designed to be reused. Test flights launch from Starbase in Texas.
Source: SpaceX: Starship, checked 2026-09-27The provider's page for this flight
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