For the second time this week, SpaceX is preparing for the maiden test flight of Starship, the company’s most ambitious rocket to date and the most powerful rocket ever built. If successful, Starship could become the vehicle of choice to take astronauts back to the moon or perhaps even take humanity on its first-ever journey to Mars.
Starship is poised for liftoff as early as Thursday during a one-hour launch window starting at 8:28 a.m. CT (9:28 a.m. ET). The rocket will be launching from Starbase, SpaceX’s private spaceport at the southernmost point of Texas. Similar to other missions, the Starship test flight will be livestreamed on SpaceX’s website about 45 minutes before the scheduled liftoff.
This will be Starship’s second attempt at a test flight. The rocket was initially set for its maiden flight on Monday, but the launch was halted due to a valve issue. The SpaceX team ended up treating the rest of the launch attempt as a “wet dress rehearsal,” with the private space company going through Starship’s launch steps except for the rocket’s actual liftoff.
The Test Flight
Starship is a very imposing rocket and is comprised of two sections. At its bottom lies the Super Heavy booster, a 230-foot-tall (69 meters) cylinder equipped with 33 engines, and sitting atop it is the 164-foot-tall (50 meters) Starship spacecraft.
Upon ignition, the booster is expected to propel the spacecraft over the Gulf of Mexico toward space. At around two and a half minutes after takeoff, the Super Heavy rocket booster is expected to separate from the Starship spacecraft and descend into the ocean. The Starship spacecraft will then utilize its engines for over six minutes to reach almost orbital speeds.
Starship is expected to complete nearly a full orbit of Earth before re-entering the atmosphere near Hawaii. Provided that everything goes according to plan, Starship would be splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about an hour and a half after it takes off from Texas, as noted in a CNN report.
Elon Musk Sets Expectations
While there is much humor to be inspired by Starship’s possible 4/20 maiden flight, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has tempered expectations about the upcoming rocket launch. Musk has noted that “success is not what should be expected… That would be insane,” when it comes to the test flight. Musk would know, considering his vast experience with rocket-building that began way back during Falcon 1’s days from 2006 to 2008.
Starship development has taken place at SpaceX’s Texas spaceport. Early testing of Starship started with “hop tests” of several prototypes, which progressed from short flights a few dozen feet off the ground to high-altitude flights. And while many of the tests ended in massive explosions, one suborbital flight test in May 2021 proved successful. Footage from the test looked like something from a sci-fi movie.
Musk’s tempered expectations for Starship’s maiden test flight should come as no surprise. Back when SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket made its first launch in 2018, Musk estimated only a 50-50 chance of success. At the time, Musk even joked that people came from all over the world to witness either an amazing rocket launch or the best fireworks display they had ever seen. Fortunately, the Falcon Heavy launch was successful, and it provided some of the most iconic images of modern spaceflight in the form of Starman and his red Tesla Roadster floating in space.
SpaceX’s livestream for Starship’s second test flight attempt can be viewed below.
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Tesla Megapacks chosen for 548 MWh energy storage project in Japan
Tesla plans to supply over 100 Megapack units to support a large stationary storage project in Japan, making it one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities.
Tesla’s Megapack grid-scale batteries have been selected to back an energy storage project in Japan, coming as the latest of the company’s continued deployment of the hardware.
As detailed in a report from Nikkei this week, Tesla plans to supply 142 Megapack units to support a 548 MWh storage project in Japan, set to become one of the country’s largest energy storage facilities. The project is being overseen by financial firm Orix, and it will be located at a facility Maibara in central Japan’s Shiga prefecture, and it aims to come online in early 2027.
The deal is just the latest of several Megapack deployments over the past few years, as the company continues to ramp production of the units. Tesla currently produces the Megapack at a facility in Lathrop, California, though the company also recently completed construction on its second so-called “Megafactory” in Shanghai China and is expected to begin production in the coming weeks.
READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla Megapacks help power battery supplier Panasonic’s Kyoto test site
Tesla’s production of the Megapack has been ramping up at the Lathrop facility since initially opening in 2022, and both this site and the Shanghai Megafactory are aiming to eventually reach a volume production of 10,000 Megapack units per year. The company surpassed its 10,000th Megapack unit produced at Lathrop in November.
During Tesla’s Q4 earnings call last week, CEO Elon Musk also said that the company is looking to construct a third Megafactory, though he did not disclose where.
Last year, Tesla Energy also had record deployments of its Megapack and Powerwall home batteries with a total of 31.4 GWh of energy products deployed for a 114-percent increase from 2023.
Other recently deployed or announced Megapack projects include a massive 600 MW/1,600 MWh facility in Melbourne, a 75 MW/300 MWh energy storage site in Belgium, and a 228 MW/912 MWh storage project in Chile, along with many others still.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Tesla highlights the Megapack site replacing Hawaii’s last coal plant
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Elon Musk responds to Ontario canceling $100M Starlink deal amid tariff drama
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said, opens new tab on February 3 that he was “ripping up” his province’s CA$100 million agreement with Starlink in response to the U.S. imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.
Elon Musk company SpaceX is set to lose a $100 million deal with the Canadian province of Ontario following a response to the Trump administration’s decision to apply 25 percent tariffs to the country.
Starlink, a satellite-based internet service launched by the Musk entity SpaceX, will lose a $100 million deal it had with Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced today.
Starting today and until U.S. tariffs are removed, Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts.
Every year, the Ontario government and its agencies spend $30 billion on procurement, alongside our $200 billion plan to build Ontario. U.S.-based businesses will…
— Doug Ford (@fordnation) February 3, 2025
Ford said on X today that Ontario is banning American companies from provincial contracts:
“We’ll be ripping up the province’s contract with Starlink. Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy. Canada didn’t start this fight with the U.S., but you better believe we’re ready to win it.”
It is a blow to the citizens of the province more than anything, as the Starlink internet constellation has provided people in rural areas across the globe stable and reliable access for several years.
Musk responded in simple terms, stating, “Oh well.”
Oh well https://t.co/1jpMu55T6s
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2025
It seems Musk is less than enthused about the fact that Starlink is being eliminated from the province, but it does not seem like all that big of a blow either.
As previously mentioned, this impacts citizens more than Starlink itself, which has established itself as a main player in reliable internet access. Starlink has signed several contracts with various airlines and maritime companies.
It is also expanding to new territories across the globe on an almost daily basis.
With Mexico already working to avoid the tariff situation with the United States, it will be interesting to see if Canada does the same.
The two have shared a pleasant relationship, but President Trump is putting his foot down in terms of what comes across the border, which could impact Americans in the short term.
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