Aiming for Less Explosive End: SpaceX Targets Starship Launch
SpaceX looks to get its developmental Starship back into space, this time with fewer explosions, and for the first time flying with a reused Super Heavy booster.
The massive combined rocket and spacecraft is targeting liftoff from the company's Texas site Starbase during a 60-minute window that opens at 7:30 p.m. EDT (6:30 p.m. CDT).
This marks the third launch attempt this year and ninth overall for the in-development hardware that aims to be the replacement for SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Recent Launch Attempts
Both attempts in 2025 ended with the upper stage Starship spacecraft disintegrating after launch, leaving trails of debris visible from South Florida and the Caribbean.
The Federal Aviation Administration cleared Starship, though, to try its ninth suborbital mission, aiming to once again launch from Texas and fly more than halfway around the world, landing in the Indian Ocean off the western coast of Australia.
"After completing the investigation into the loss of Starship on its eighth flight test, several hardware changes have been made to increase reliability," the company posted on its website.
Booster Recovery
One thing that did work on both its January and March launch attempts was the successful recapture of the Super Heavy booster back at the launch site. The booster that flew in January on the seventh test flight of Starship is being used for Tuesday's attempt.
For safety reasons, SpaceX will not try to recapture it on this flight at the launch site, but instead aim for a landing point in the Gulf waters downrange for a hard splashdown landing.
Experiments and Objectives
"In addition to the reuse milestone, Super Heavy will fly a variety of experiments aimed at generating data to improve performance and reliability on future boosters," SpaceX posted. "The Starship upper stage will repeat its suborbital trajectory and target objectives not reached on the previous two flight tests, including the first payload deployment from Starship and multiple reentry experiments geared towards returning the vehicle to the launch site for catch."
Reflights of the booster will speed up test flights, and the FAA recently increased SpaceX's potential flights from Texas to 25 a year.
This particular booster is reusing 29 of the 33 Raptor engines.
Performance Testing
"Lessons learned from the first booster refurbishment and subsequent performance in flight will enable faster turnarounds of future reflights as progress is made towards vehicles requiring no hands-on maintenance between launches," SpaceX posted.
The upper stage will try to perform the deployment of eight Starlink simulators, something it was not able to perform on the last two flights after the stage was destroyed early in the flight plan.
SpaceX aims to perform a single relight of a Raptor engine during the flight as well.
Reentry Challenges
"The flight test includes several experiments focused on enabling Starship's upper stage to return to the launch site," SpaceX posted. " A significant number of tiles have been removed from Starship to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry. Multiple metallic tile options, including one with active cooling, will test alternative materials for protecting Starship during reentry."
The company said it's still trying to push the limits of reentry to get the best heat protection system for future flights.
| Launch Attempt | Date | Outcome | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Attempt | January 2025 | Failure | Starship disintegrated mid-flight |
| Second Attempt | March 2025 | Failure | Similar outcome to first attempt |
| Upcoming Attempt | May 27, 2025 | TBD | Reusing last booster with hardware improvements |
Future Plans
To date, all launches have been from Texas, but the company is building out two launch sites on the Space Coast.
NASA has a vested interest in the system being completed, as a version of Starship has been tapped to be the human landing system for the Artemis III mission that seeks to return humans to the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
"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 posted.
Conclusion
With efforts focused on enhancing both safety and performance, SpaceX's upcoming launch represents a significant step towards achieving reliable and repeatable space exploration capabilities.
References
1. SpaceX Targets Starship Launch, Phys.org.
