SpaceX is preparing to launch its massive Starship rocket from South Texas. This test offers the company an opportunity to reverse a difficult few months marked by mishaps both on the ground and in the air.
The last Starship test flight occurred nearly three months ago and achieved a significant milestone: the first reuse of a Super Heavy booster. However, that mission concluded with the upper stage, also called Starship or Ship, breaking apart during reentry. The booster also exploded over the Gulf of Mexico during its landing burn.
A few weeks later, the Ship designated for Flight 10 exploded on the ground during a static-fire test campaign. This incident destroyed a test stand and forced SpaceX to substitute a new upper stage for the upcoming mission. The Federal Aviation Administration has since concluded its mishap investigations into Flight 9, granting approval for this next attempt.
These consecutive losses have heightened the stakes, transforming this next flight into a critical test of SpaceX’s ability to integrate lessons learned and achieve new successes. The company’s development strategy is famously known as “build-fly-fix-repeat,” and each test flight generates a wealth of valuable data. Nevertheless, the continued loss of the Ship during flight has prompted questions about when the megarocket will be ready to carry payloads for commercial customers and for NASA.
Despite these setbacks, SpaceX has made remarkable progress with the stainless-steel Starship since its first flight in April 2023. Most notably, the company made history in May by reflying a booster for the first time, proving that rapid reuse is possible. However, successfully returning the upper stage, let alone landing it for reuse as is the ultimate goal, still appears to be some time away.
The financial stakes are increasingly public. In a January filing with Texas regulators, SpaceX stated it has already invested more than $7.5 billion into Starbase and the Starship program. More recently, the company informed Florida’s governor that it plans to spend an additional $1.8 billion to establish Starship launch pads at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
NASA is also banking on Starship’s success. SpaceX holds two contracts worth a combined $4 billion to develop a version of Starship known as the Human Landing System. This vehicle is tasked with returning astronauts to the moon under NASA’s Artemis program. The Artemis III mission is currently scheduled for mid-2027. To meet that deadline and provide NASA with the necessary confidence in Starship’s safety for humans, SpaceX must demonstrate a series of complex milestones beyond simple launch and reentry. These include perfecting the Ship’s reusable heat shield, demonstrating cryogenic propellant transfer in low Earth orbit, and landing Starship on the moon. Each of these achievements is historic, and SpaceX must complete them all.
Meanwhile, a recent report indicated that SpaceX reassigned scores of engineers from its Falcon 9 program to Starship to accelerate progress on solving the big rocket’s problems. The importance of Starship to the company’s long-term plans cannot be overstated. Beyond the longtime ambition of CEO Elon Musk to eventually transport cargo and humans to Mars, SpaceX is also counting on Starship to launch larger, higher-throughput versions of its Starlink internet satellites at a higher frequency. As the Starlink service surpasses 6 million global customers, SpaceX aims to upgrade the constellation quickly to generate more revenue and fund its multiplanetary ambitions.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, standing nearly 400 feet tall. Its booster is equipped with 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines, and the Ship has six. At liftoff, the integrated Starship produces approximately 16.5 million pounds of thrust.
For this upcoming flight, SpaceX plans a controlled splashdown for the Super Heavy booster in the Gulf of Mexico and a splashdown for the Ship in the Indian Ocean. This will be the fourth test flight this year. Liftoff is scheduled for August 24 with an hour-long launch window that opens at 7:30 p.m. ET. SpaceX will provide a livestream of the launch.