Technology: Elon Musk Really Needs Starship to Work This Time
After three years of explosions, redesigns and technical upgrades, SpaceX's mission-critical Starship is scheduled to launch its twelfth test flight as soon as this week.
With its mega-IPO fast approaching, the company really needs the rocket to work as advertised.
SpaceX has laid out many lofty goals before its initial public offering, and almost all hinge on its behemoth Starship being able to transport a whole lot of heavy stuff into space all at once. The rocket is supposed to deploy a larger fleet of Starlink satellites, start a human base on the moon and set in motion Elon Musk's latest grand vision: a system of more than 1 million data center satellites to support artificial intelligence. Starship, built and launched out of SpaceX's Starbase facility in South Texas, is also meant to unlock the company's ultimate goal of starting a human settlement on Mars.