Starship will only have a 20-minute launch window after a one-day delay

Thursday, SpaceX CEO and chief engineer Elon Musk, shared that the Starship rocket would not be flying on Friday but will be getting a fresh actuator in its Super Heavy booster. The need to replace this part will slide the launch back one day to Saturday and drop the two hour window to only 20 minutes.

No that is not a typo

You read that right, Saturday’s Starship launch attempt window will only be 20 minutes long, giving SpaceX not a lot of time to troubleshoot any problems that may arise.

SpaceX isn’t new to short windows, however. The company launches its Falcon 9 rocket weekly with almost near instantaneous launch windows. The difference this time is the Falcon 9 has launched over 80 times this year alone, while this will only be the second flight of SpaceX’s Starship rocket.

The signs of a delay began when media down in South Texas for the launch witnessed destacking hardware being moved back to he orbital launch pad. Since this sort of equipment isn’t the kind you want left at a launch pad, the only thing it could mean was Ship 25 would have to come down.

Elon Musk confirmed the destack on his social media site X (formally Twitter). “We need to replace a grid fin actuator, so launch is postponed to Saturday,” Musk said.

While the grid fins aren’t important for the launch of the vehicle, they are for landing the booster in the future. For the second Starship flight, SpaceX will only attempt to splash the booster down in the Gulf of Mexico but in future flights, the goal is to catch it using arms on the launch mount (yes seriously that is the plan).

An updated sound advisory, a requirement for SpaceX to do by local authorities, gave details into Saturday’s launch window. While it will open at the same time, 7:00 A.M. CT, the window will be cut back to only 20 minutes.

This will require SpaceX to have a rather flawless countdown. Which is more likely this time than during the first launch back in April as teams have undergone numerous dress rehearsals in recent weeks.

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What about further delays?

If SpaceX can’t get Starship off the pad one way or another Saturday, the company has a backup date on Sunday. Most likely SpaceX will have a window to launch daily if needed. At least until the end of next week where it gets murky with Thanksgiving and SpaceX may or may not have the ability to close the road.

From the TFR SpaceX was given by the FAA, the times line up that Sunday’s backup launch window will be 120 minutes. Giving the company much more time to problem solve anything that shows up in a rocket this early in development.

Now all this is assuming that what reasons SpaceX has to delay is something the company can resolve in 24 hours. Some issues might need more than a day to clear or weather could delay launches for multiple days.

For those that are joining us that haven’t followed many rocket launches in the past, welcome to the waiting and see game.

Either way, SpaceX launch operations will begin very early in the morning. Road closures go into effect at midnight and fueling begins two hours before the launch even takes place. Don’t forget the potential hours of pre-fueling operations before that.