SpaceX Cleared to Launch Starship

Insider Brief

• SpaceX will conduct the ninth test flight of Starship on May 27 following FAA approval and a completed investigation into the vehicle’s March 2025 failure.
• The mission will test a reused Super Heavy booster, new in-flight maneuvers, and upper stage objectives including Raptor engine relight, Starlink payload deployment, and heat shield stress tests.
• Flight 8 failed due to a Raptor engine hardware fault; SpaceX has implemented structural and thermal mitigations, with the new test aiming to advance reusability and performance insights for the Starship platform.

SpaceX has scheduled the launch of Starship’s ninth test launch after the FAA cleared the flight following a review of what went wrong during the previous launch in March that ended with an explosion.

The Texas launch is slated for May 27, with a launch window opening at 6:30 p.m. Central Time., according to SpaceX.

The ninth mission, to test the first reuse of a flight-proven Super Heavy booster, follows an investigation into the loss of the vehicle during its eighth test in March 2025. SpaceX identified a hardware failure in one of Starship’s center Raptor engines as the most probable cause of the failure, resulting in unintended propellant mixing and ignition.

“Extensive ground testing has taken place since the flight test to better understand the failure, including more than 100 long-duration Raptor firings at SpaceX’s McGregor test facility,” SpaceX indicated in a summary of its investigation.

Corrective measures have included structural reinforcements, a nitrogen purge system, and improved propellant drainage, according to SpaceX. The upper stage will retain 29 of its 33 original Raptor engines.

“While the failure manifested at a similar point in the flight timeline as Starship’s seventh flight test, it is worth noting that the failures are distinctly different,” SpaceX noted, adding those fixes addressing “harmonic response and flammability of the ship’s attic section worked as designed prior to the failure on Flight 8.”

The Super Heavy booster on Flight 9 will test several in-flight experiments, including new trajectory flips, high-angle descents for added drag, and a landing burn using an intentionally disabled engine to assess backup configurations. These tests are designed to increase reusability by reducing turnaround time and expanding flight envelope knowledge. The booster will not attempt to return to the launch site but will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico, which was recently renamed by President Trump as Gulf of America.

Starship’s upper stage aims to meet objectives not achieved in prior tests, according to the company. These include a relight of a Raptor engine in space, the deployment of eight simulated Starlink payloads, and stress tests of the heat shield and structural components. Several reentry experiments will expose the vehicle to extreme thermal loads, testing tile durability and alternative materials, including actively cooled panels.

The previous flight achieved hot staging and boostback burns but lost communication nine and a half minutes into flight. Although the autonomous flight safety system did not initially trigger, it likely activated after the telemetry loss, ensuring a safe breakup. SpaceX coordinated debris recovery with the FAA and Bahamian authorities, with all fragments confined to the designated debris response zone.

“Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable. But by putting hardware in a flight environment as frequently as possible, we’re able to quickly learn and execute design changes as we seek to bring Starship online as a fully and rapidly reusable vehicle,” SpaceX said of the launch.