Starship’s ninth launch and landing test was a hit and a miss at the same time. Some of the flight test objectives were successfully achieved, but major ones, such as water landings and controlled re-entry of the Flight 9 Starship, failed.
The Flight 9 Starship lifted off from the Starbase, Texas launch tower at 6:36 p.m. CT on Tuesday, May 27th, 2025. All 33 Raptor engines of the Flight 9 Super Heavy rocket booster successfully lit for the entire duration of the ascent.
Before lift-off, SpaceX held the flight test at T-40 seconds twice this time. However, the clock started ticking soon after the 2nd hold as issues were resolved quickly (see the live updates I covered during the Flight 9 test).
Elon Musk was also present at the Starbase, Texas Starship flight control room to observe the Flight 9 launch. He also shared his thoughts and future outlook of the Starship launch tests after the completion of the test.
Starship SECO, Uncontrolled Re-entry, Heat Shield Data Loss
Both SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk celebrated achieving the Starship engine cut-off (SECO) stage objective. In the previous two Starship V2 flight tests (Flight 7 and Flight 8), the upper stage Starships were destroyed before reaching SECO.
During the live stream of the event, watched by millions, SpaceX staff at both Starbase, Texas and Hawthorne, California cheered reaching SECO this time. The previous engine failures in space had an impact on the Starship engineering team, and they finally came out of the trauma.
The Flight 9 Starship spacecraft (Ship 35) coasted in suborbital space for a while. However, due to an anomaly, SpaceX lost attitude control of the vehicle. SpaceX engineers still managed to keep it on the planned trajectory.
Due to the unexpected attitude (angle) on re-entry, the Flight 9 Starship’s wrong side came into contact with the Earth’s atmosphere. If the attitude was controlled, Starship’s side with the heat shields would bear the re-entry heat and friction.
Due to re-entry speeds of around 26,500 km/h and temperatures reaching up to 1400℃ (2552℉), the Flight 9 Starship upper stage endured major damage. Live-stream footage showed the forward flaps of the vehicle melting on re-entry burn.
This is the third time that SpaceX was unable to gain any re-entry data from the thermal protection system (TPS) heat shied tiles installed on a 2nd gen Starship V2 prototype.
Useful thermal protection data would’ve been gathered if Starship’s orientation was correct at the time of re-entry. SpaceX lost contact with the vehicle at around T+46 minutes before it attempted a lading into the Indian Ocean. Flight 9 Starship was most probably destroyed due to a self-triggered flight terminations system (FTS).
Starlink V2 Simulator Satellites Payload Deployment Failure
The Starship spacecraft is not just designed to carry humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. These space vehicles are also intended to drop payload in space.
SpaceX has designed the next-generation of Starlink satellites called Starlink V2. One of the objectives of the Flight 9 launch test was to test a deployment of dummy Starlink V2 satellites.
Eight Starlink V2 simulator satellites were stacked in the Flight 9 Starship’s payload bay. However, at T+18 minutes 30 seconds into the flight, SpaceX attempted to open the payload bay door. The actuation system of the payload bay door failed and it didn’t open in space. So, this objective was not achieved on this mission.
Starlink V2 satellites are larger in size compared to the previous generation and can only fit a large spacecraft such as Starship. The following CGI animation shows how the Starship will deploy Starlink satellites in the future.
During Starship’s orbital coast, several in-space objectives were planned, including the first payload deployment from Starship and a relight of a single Raptor engine.
Starship’s payload bay door was unable to open which prevented the deployment of the eight Starlink simulator satellites. A subsequent attitude control error resulted in bypassing the Raptor relight and prevented Starship from getting into the intended position for reentry. Starship then went through an automated safing process to vent the remaining pressure to place the vehicle in the safest condition for reentry. Contact with Starship was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, with all debris expected to fall within the planned hazard area in the Indian Ocean.
Source: Starship Flight 9 official post-flight recap.
Super Heavy Reuse, Soft Landing Ends in a RUD
SpaceX successfully reused the Booster 14 Super Heavy rocket for the 2nd time. The reusability objective was successfully achieved for the Flight 9 booster and Raptor engines. The Raptor engine number 314 went for its 3rd Starship launch.
The other objective of the Flight 9 Starship launch was to land the Super Heavy booster in the ocean. SpaceX didn’t attempt to catch the booster in this flight test because it wanted to stage an emergency soft splashdown landing in case of landing engine failure in a real flight scenario.
According to SpaceX, 13 middle-ring and ceter engines successfully ignited before a landing attempt of the Flight 9 Super Heavy in the Gulf of America. However, the booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly (RUD) before the landing.
As it approached its designated splashdown area in the Gulf of America, Super Heavy relit its 13 center and middle ring Raptor engines. Contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of landing burn when it experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly approximately 6 minutes after launch, bringing an end to the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster.
Flight Super Heavy Higher Angle of Attack
SpaceX achieved another objective of flying the Super Heavy booster at a higher angle of attack. This increases the aerodynamic drag during descent and helps decelerate the vehicle with minimal engine and propellant usage.
This is a more efficient way of bringing down the Starship booster as it decreases fuel usage before a landing burn. SpaceX wrote the following in its official Flight 9 report:
Super Heavy demonstrated its ability to fly at a higher angle of attack during its descent back to Earth. By increasing the amount of atmospheric drag on the vehicle, a higher angle of attack results in a slower descent speed which in turn requires less propellant for the initial landing burn. Getting real-world data on how the booster controlled its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy.
Launch Cadence for Next Starship Flight Tests
Soon after the Flight 9 Starship launch and landing test, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk posted his thoughts on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
According to Musk, the main reason for Flight 9 Starship’s upper stage failure was the loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phases.
He also hinted that the next Starship flight tests will rollout faster than the previous tests. “Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks,” Musk stated.
FAA has already granted SpaceX permission to conduct up to 25 launches per year from Starbase, Texas. In the past few years, SpaceX has gained momentum and efficiency in Starship production and launch pad turnaround times. So, we might see the next flight tests sooner than expected. Say tuned for future updates.
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Related SpaceX / Starship News & Content
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- Starship Flight 9 test: SpaceX misses major objectives, launch cadence to increase, says Musk
- Starship Flight 9 launch live updates, Watch the live streams here (archived)
- SpaceX mounts Flight 9 Starship onto the OLM, shares the landing plan, and stunning views ahead of launch
