SpaceX is poised to launch the ninth test flight of its Starship megarocket

CNN

27-05-2025

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Title: Voters recently made SpaceX's "Starbase" facilities an actual Texas town
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SpaceX's Starship facilities lie at the end of a narrow Texas roadway on the state's southernmost tip.
This once serene stretch of untouched coastline, which for decades has drawn local residents to enjoy the beach, is now a bustling hive of activity as SpaceX manufactures, transports, and tests its towering Starship rockets, which stand more than 400 feet tall when fully assembled.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has for years teased the idea of making the area an official town — and earlier this month, voters did just that. Residents of the area, primarily company employees, approved the creation of a Starbase town with a 212-to-6 vote.
Incorporating Starbase could grant SpaceX more authority over its own operations.
'This is what one would probably call a company town,' Eddie Treviño, the Cameron County Judge, told CNN.
Company towns — where residents are largely reliant on a company for housing, employment and services — were more prevalent in the 19th and 20th centuries during the Industrial Revolution.
Treviño said it's still unclear which types of government functions — such as police, emergency, and permitting services — Starbase will take on. Once incorporated, municipalities are also required to hold public meetings, according to state law.
SpaceX engineer Bobby Penden will serve as mayor of Starbase.
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Title: SpaceX will not attempt an eye-catching booster landing today
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SpaceX is using a pre-flown Super Heavy rocket booster for the first time today. And the company is expecting this to be the second and last flight for this 232-foot-tall booster, which gives the launch system its first burst of power at liftoff and vaults the Starship spacecraft toward space.
Rather than steering Super Heavy back to a landing, the vehicle will take on a several 'flight experiments,' according to SpaceX, to test the limits of the booster and figure out how it will operate in less-than-ideal scenarios.
'One of the three center engines used for the final phase of landing will be intentionally disabled to gather data on the ability for a backup engine from the middle ring to complete a landing burn,' the company said.
The vehicle is expected to make a hard landing in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump recently renamed the Gulf of America.
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Title: SpaceX kicks off livestream of tonight's launch
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A webcast of tonight's launch attempt just kicked off. Hosting the stream are SpaceX engineer Jessie Anderson and spokesperson Dan Huot.
The stream is being broadcast on X, the social media site that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk purchased for $44 billion in 2022.
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Title: The FAA has been in touch with at-risk islands
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In January, Starship's in-flight failure showered debris over Turks and Caicos. A car was struck during the event, the FAA confirmed at the time. (There were no reported injuries.)
Then, another Starship test flight in March ended in an explosive mishap. Debris wound up in the sparsely populated Crooked Island of the Bahamas.
SpaceX says it helped with cleanup after both failures. CNN's reporting has shown that residents of Turks and Caicos handled much of the cleanup effort after the January failure, and environmentalists still have deep concerns about the impact.
For its part, the Bahamian government also issued a notice Monday warning the public that another Starship test would soon be underway.
The statement also acknowledged that local authorities do not have a say in when or if Starship flies.
'According to SpaceX, the planned flight trajectory of this Starship is several hundred thousand feet above Bahamian airspace, and therefore does not require approval of Bahamas authorities,' the statement reads.
The United States' Federal Aviation Administration — however — does have that authority.
Its decision to allow Starship to fly does involve calculating risks to people and property.
Specifically, SpaceX must map out 'hazard areas sufficient to ensure that the probability of casualty to a member of the public on land or on board a maritime vessel does not exceed one in one million,' according to the FAA statement.
In a May 22 email, the FAA also said it has been in close contact with islands at risk of being impacted by Starship debris, including the Bahamas and Turks & Caicos.
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Title: SpaceX is hashing out an upgraded Starship design
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After notching three mostly successful test flights in 2024, Starship has been off to a rocky start in 2025 with two explosive failures.
One key factor could be at play: The company debuted a new version of the Starship spacecraft ahead of January's Flight 7.
The upgrades included a 25% larger fuel tank, brand new avionics and upgraded flight computers.
After the mid-flight failures of Flight 7 and Flight 8 in March — both of which ended in explosions less than 10 minutes after launch — the company has rolled out even more tweaks and upgrades in the hopes that it can get Starship to survive farther into its flight path.
Among many incremental changes put in place since January: The company said it altered lines that feed fuel to some of the Starship's engines, tweaked propellant temperatures and adjusted the vehicle's 'operating thrust target.' Mission teams also installed a new 'purge system' that uses nitrogen to help flush out fuel leaks, and, most recently, put 'additional preload on key joints' — which basically means tightening up some screws.
However, even if Starship makes it further into its mission today — surviving its full engine burn and reaching the Indian Ocean — SpaceX might not be banking on the idea that the vehicle will make a controlled landing.
The company has opted to remove some of the vehicle's protective heat shield in an effort to 'stress test' the vehicle, which means engineers are hoping to figure out exactly when and how hardware might fail to get a better fundamental understanding of how the materials behave.
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Title: Starship is "Go" for propellant load
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SpaceX just confirmed that it has given the green light to start filling up the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket booster with fuel. That's a good indication that weather is looking good and engineers aren't tracking any major issues with the vehicle.
The Starship team is go for prop load https://t.co/BdPSfliDD1
Together, Starship and Super Heavy can hold more than 10 million pounds of liquid oxygen and methane.
Propellant loading of the Starship will end about three and a half minutes before takeoff, and Super Heavy will get its last top off at just under three minutes until the countdown clock strikes zero.
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Title: Starship will attempt to deploy dummy satellites
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One of the most interesting goals SpaceX has planned for today's test flight: Starship will attempt to deploy eight satellite 'simulators' from the Starship spacecraft.
The company had hoped to test out how Starship would accomplish such task during Flight 7 in January and Flight 8 in March. But the spacecraft abruptly exploded about 10 minutes into each of those missions.
SpaceX said the satellite simulators used on today's flight will be 'similar in size' to the company's next generation of Starlink internet satellites, hashing out how Starship may take over launch tasks from Falcon 9, SpaceX's workhorse rockets.
Because Starship is not equipped with a nose cone, or payload fairing, as most other rockets are, the satellites will need to be ejected from a special hatch.
Take note, however, that this is all just a test.
The satellite simulators will not stay in space. Instead, they'll travel on a suborbital path, much like the Starship spacecraft itself, which is slated to splash down in the Indian Ocean about one hour after takeoff.
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Title: Starship has impacted airlines — and travelers
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After SpaceX's Starship Flight 8 exploded just minutes into flight in March, the FAA implemented a Debris Response Area — a designated section of airspace that regulators lock down if an in-flight failure occurs. The expanded airspace closure resulted in 171 departure delays for aircraft.
That included an average flight delay of 28 minutes, 28 flight diversions, and 40 aircraft already in flight that were held an average of 22 minutes.
For Flight 9, routine airspace closures (not including a potential Debris Response Area) that are locked down ahead of launch could affect as many as 175 flights, according to the FAA.
And all these disruptions cost money — to airlines and passengers, according to regulators.
The agency estimates that delays cost travelers about $50 per hour and cost passenger airlines as much as $100.80 per minute, or $6,048.00 per hour per delayed flight.
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Title: Here's why SpaceX is ok with blowing up rockets
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SpaceX embraces a development philosophy called 'rapid iterative development.'
The underlying idea is that engineers can figure out the best rocket design more quickly and effectively by simply putting early iterations of the vehicle through test flights, accepting the risk that some may blow up.
Starship is still in early development — hence the two recent explosions during test flights.
But in a broad sense, the 'rapid iterative development' approach has been effective. Rarely has a SpaceX rocket malfunctioned once it leaves the design stage and becomes operational. And the company's human spaceflight track record — using Falcon 9 rockets — has been spotless. Additionally, SpaceX rockets are famously far cheaper than anything else on the market.
Notably, the company's engineering approach stands in stark contrast to NASA's.
The space agency has emphasized lengthy design processes and rigorous ground testing, aiming to all but guarantee success on the first flight attempt.
NASA's method has drawn criticism — most recently because the Space Launch System rocket, which made its flight debut in 2022, is billions over budget and faced years of delays.
SpaceX's approach, which has led to many explosive mishaps, has its own detractors.
Environmentalists and residents of South Texas, where the company's Starship development facilities are located, as well as people living in Turks and Caicos, where a prior failure rained debris, are concerned about the risks to humans and the planet.
In a May 22 statement, SpaceX spelled out its case for sticking with its build-and-fly approach:
By putting hardware into a real-world environment as frequently as possible, while still maximizing controls for public safety, progress can be made to achieve the goal of flying a reliable, fully and rapidly reusable rocket.
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Title: SpaceX will attempt another nail-biting "chopsticks" booster catch
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SpaceX will once again aim to return the Super Heavy booster — the bottommost part of the Starship system equipped with more than 30 engines — back to a safe landing at the launch tower mere minutes after liftoff.
The efforts to safely land and recover the Super Heavy rocket after launch are becoming more crucial as SpaceX takes its first steps toward reusing the massive booster.
Today's flight, for example, will mark the first time SpaceX has attempted to reuse an entire booster. The 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) vehicle, which towers about as high as a 17-story building, that will be used on this mission was previously recovered after a January launch.
Static fire of the Super Heavy preparing to launch Starship's ninth flight test. This booster previously launched and returned on Flight 7 and 29 of its 33 Raptor engines are flight proven pic.twitter.com/XBOvoZezvJ
With past recovery attempts, the booster has veered back toward SpaceX's launch tower, steering itself into the arms of 'Mechazilla' — a massive structure named for its likeness to a metallic Godzilla that the company designed to catch rockets midair. The company won't attempt a booster landing today.
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Title: SpaceX is reusing a Super Heavy rocket booster today. It's a big step toward a key goal
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For the first time ever, SpaceX is using a pre-flown Super Heavy rocket booster on today's test flight.
The 232-foot-tall (71-meter) Super Heavy that will blast the Starship craft toward space was previously flown — and recaptured — after a launch in January. All but four of the vehicle's engines were also part of that January flight.
Attempting to reuse a Super Heavy booster is a huge step for SpaceX.
For the vast majority of spaceflight history, rocket parts have been discarded — left to break apart or fall into the ocean after doing their job of delivering a spacecraft or satellite to space.
But SpaceX has long made reusability part of its corporate identity. The goal is to recover, refurbish and refly as much of a rocket as possible to save money, drastically driving down the cost per launch.
The company has already made waves in that effort with the Falcon 9, its workhorse rocket, which is roughly 80% reusable.
Starship aims to go a step further, achieving nearly 100% reusability.
'To achieve this first ever reflight (of a Starship Super Heavy booster), extensive inspections took place following the booster's first launch to assess hardware health and identify where maintenance or replacement hardware was needed. Known single-use components like ablative heat-shielding were replaced, but a large majority of the booster's hardware will be flight-proven, including 29 of its 33 Raptor engine,' SpaceX said in a statement.
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Title: SpaceX says it knows what went wrong with the last Starship flight
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The last two Starship test flights ended with explosive failures near islands just east of Florida.
An investigation into the most recent mishap in March is ongoing.
But SpaceX says it knows what went wrong.
The Super Heavy booster, which provides the initial burst of power at liftoff, and the upper 171-foot (52-meter) Starship spacecraft took off with no obvious issues.
After the Super Heavy burned through most of its fuel, it separated from the Starship and landed successfully in the arms of SpaceX's 'Mechazilla' launch tower.
But a few engines flamed out on the way home. SpaceX said the 'most probable cause' was an ignition issue caused by abnormal thermal conditions, the company said in a May 22 statement.
Separately — and more significantly — an engine of the upper Starship spacecraft, often referred to as just the 'ship,' exploded just minutes after separating from Super Heavy. Ground controllers lost contact with the vehicle, likely triggering the vehicle's automatic, emergency self-destruct feature.
The likely cause of the mishap, according to SpaceX, was 'a hardware failure' in one of the ship's six engines. That issue likely led to 'inadvertent propellant mixing and ignition' — setting off an explosion in that engine.
The March failure occurred at a similar point in Starship's flight path to that of the January mishap. That's when a fire broke out in the vehicle's 'attic' section that led to the vehicle to explode over Turks and Caicos.
But SpaceX said the issues affecting the March and January test flights were different: January's issues centered on 'harmonic response' — or harsh vibrations — and 'flammability.' Those problems were mitigated during the March test flight, according to SpaceX.
The fixes implemented before today's flight, however, included putting 'additional preload on key joints.' That basically means tightening up some screws.
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Title: An investigation into Starship's March failure is ongoing
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Before each Starship test flight, SpaceX needs explicit approval from federal regulators because of the risky nature of these missions.
And the Federal Aviation Administration gave the green light for this launch despite the fact that an investigation into what went wrong during Starship's explosive failure during Flight 8 in March remains open.
The FAA said it gave SpaceX the go-ahead after determining that the company had met 'all of the rigorous safety, environmental and other licensing requirements.'
It's not the first time the FAA has allowed SpaceX to launch another Starship flight with an open investigation on the books. A probe into what went wrong during Flight 7 in January, which rained debris over Turks and Caicos that even struck a car on one of the islands, was ongoing when SpaceX launched Flight 8.
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Title: Elon Musk is set to give a Starship update post-launch
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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had been slated to deliver a speech to employees titled, 'The road to making life multiplanetary' around 1 p.m. ET.
But Musk abruptly changed those plans, opting to give the speech after tonight's test flight. The event will be livestreamed on Musk's social media platform, X.
This talk is postponed until after the Starship Flight 9 launch tonight https://t.co/gCBQi8M4nA
Musk has given showy updates about Starship and his long-term vision for the rocket — carrying convoys of humans to establish a settlement on Mars — every few years since 2016.
During such speeches, Musk tends to tick through some of the same talking points, emphasizing his view that humans need to live on other worlds in order to ensure survival of the species if a catastrophic event makes our planet unlivable.
'There's always some chance that something could go wrong on Earth. The dinosaurs are not around anymore,' Musk said during one such speech in 2022.
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Title: Here's what to expect during today's flight
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After two very public and explosive failures, SpaceX is once again ready to send one of its Starship vehicles on a test flight.
Success is not guaranteed this time, either.
But the company is hoping to take some significant steps forward. Engineers have made changes to address loose hardware, propellant leaks and other issues that plagued the most recent test flights in January and March.
And for the first time ever, SpaceX is reusing a Super Heavy rocket booster, the bottommost portion of the Starship system, after successfully recovering the 232-foot-tall (71-meter) vehicle during the January test flight.
The hope today is that Starship, the spacecraft that rides atop Super Heavy, makes it a bit further into flight after exploding about 10 minutes into its last two missions.
Here's a quick look at what's ahead: