SpaceX faces high stakes for upcoming Starship rocket test flight

SpaceX plans to launch a new version of its Starship rocket — a prototype of the system that NASA hopes will carry its astronauts to the moon — on Tuesday.

SpaceX plans to launch an updated version of its Starship megarocket — a new prototype of the system that NASA hopes will carry its astronauts to the moon in two years — on a critical test flight Tuesday.

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The stakes for Starship, and by extension for Elon Musk’s rocket company, have perhaps never been higher. SpaceX is developing Starship as part of NASA’s Artemis program and racing against its rival, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, to build a lunar lander for NASA to use in 2028, when it aims to put astronauts on the moon. Late next year, NASA intends to test one or both of those new vehicles in low-Earth orbit on the Artemis III mission.

At the same time, SpaceX is preparing to go public. Its highly anticipated IPO, expected next month, could be the biggest of all time. Reuters reported on Friday that the company aims to make its prospectus ​public as early as Wednesday — the day after the Starship test flight — ahead of a market debut possibly by mid-June.