Elon Musk’s astronautics and commercial space operations company SpaceX announced Starship’s 9th launch test date.
SpaceX is aiming no earlier than (NET) 27th May for the Flight 9 Starship launch and landing test. The Flight 9 Starship upper stage has been going through rigorous testing and improvements in the last few weeks.
Tuesday, 27th May is the first launch window that SpaceX is going to attempt the Flight 9 test (IFT-9). In case of inclement weather or technical issues, SpaceX has backup launch windows for the next two days (details below).
The ninth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Tuesday, May 27. The launch window will open at 6:30 p.m. CT.
Update: Watch the Flight 9 Live Streams and Live Text Updates Archive here
Improvements & Final Tests
SpaceX has gotten a grip on the Starship 1st stage Super Heavy rocket booster liftoff and landing catch. However, Musk’s SpaceX team is having trouble with the upper stage Starship spacecraft.
In the last two flight tests, Flight 7 and Flight 8, the Starship upper stage experienced rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) after successful stage separation and reaching space.
Until the Flight 6 test, SpaceX was comfortably landing the 2nd/upper stage Starship into the ocean. These were the 1st generation Starship V1 prototypes.
Starship V2 prototype testing started with Flight 7. Starship V2 is wider and taller than V1. This new generation of the Starship spaceship has a long list of design and engineering improvements over the previous gen.
However, SpaceX is struggling to complete a launch, reentry, and landing cycle of the V2 Starship since the last two launches. With the learnings from the previous two flights, SpaceX has detailed the causes of the previous failures and improvements made to mitigate the problems in the upcoming Flight 9 launch in its official update as follows:
The most probable root cause for the loss of Starship was identified as a hardware failure in one of the upper stage’s center Raptor engines that resulted in inadvertent 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.
To address the issue on upcoming flights, engines on the Starship’s upper stage will receive additional preload on key joints, a new nitrogen purge system, and improvements to the propellant drain system. Future upgrades to Starship will introduce the Raptor 3 engine which will include additional reliability improvements to address the failure mechanism.
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. The mitigations put in place after Starship’s seventh flight test to address harmonic response and flammability of the ship’s attic section worked as designed prior to the failure on Flight 8.
Flight 9 Starship Six-Engine Static Fire
SpaceX conducted the third and final 6-engine static fire test of the Starship 35 prototype on Monday, May 12th. This was a successful long-duration static fire test to validate the integrity of the Raptor engines installed for the upcoming Flight 9 launch and landing test.
The previous 6-engine static fire test of Ship 35 was a partial failure. However, after making improvements, SpaceX conducted a ~60-second static fire test on the Flight 9 upper stage Starship 35, and all went well.
On Thursday, May 22, SpaceX also conducted a spin prime test on Starship 35 for a final engine integrity validation.
Flight 9 Launch Windows
The primary Starship Flight 9 launch window is scheduled for Tuesday, 27th May 2025 at 6:30 p.m. CT. However, in case of a scrub or bad weather conditions, SpaceX has kept backup launch windows for the next two days.
According to the Cameron County road closure notices for Texas Highway 4 and the Boca Chica Beach, the alternative launch windows are scheduled for the same timeline on 28th and 29th May.
Stay tuned for Flight 9 live updates and live-streaming as the events take place.
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