SpaceX confirms 9th test flight of Starship/Superheavy now scheduled for May 27, 2025
Starship/Superheavy on March 6, 2025 at T-41 seconds
SpaceX has now confirmed May 27, 2025 as the launch date for the ninth test flight of Starship/Superheavy out of its Starbase spaceport at Boca Chica.
The launch window opens at 6:30 pm (Central), with the live stream beginning 30 minutes earlier. The flight will attempt to refly the Superheavy booster used on flight seven. To push the booster’s limits, it will test “off-nominal scenarios” upon return, requiring for safety that it land in the Gulf of Mexico and not be recaptured by the chopsticks. (Just as I don’t change names or my language willy-nilly because leftists demand it, I won’t play Trump’s name-changing game here. The Gulf of Mexico was given that name more than two centuries ago, most likely by the early Spanish explorers, and that name has been good enough since.)
Starship meanwhile attempt the same test profile planned for the previous two flights but stymied by the failure of the spacecraft before reaching orbit. It will test a Starlink satellite deployment system, do a relight of one of its Raptor engines, and test its thermal ability to survive re-entry.
The company also released a report describing the results of its investigation into the previous launch failure on March 6, 2025.
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.
There has been a lot of speculation by armchair engineers about the previous two failures, mostly focused on the issue of harmonics and vibration. This report indicates that was not the problem of the eighth flight, and had actually been resolved. If so, the odds of this ninth flight flying to completion are good.
This announcement coincides with the FAA’s issuance of a launch license late yesterday. As I predicted, unlike during the Biden administration the FAA quickly accepted SpaceX’s submitted investigation and issued the license, rather than spending one to three months retyping it. It is very clear the slow-walking effort during Biden has ended under Trump.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Starship/Superheavy on March 6, 2025 at T-41 seconds
SpaceX has now confirmed May 27, 2025 as the launch date for the ninth test flight of Starship/Superheavy out of its Starbase spaceport at Boca Chica.
The launch window opens at 6:30 pm (Central), with the live stream beginning 30 minutes earlier. The flight will attempt to refly the Superheavy booster used on flight seven. To push the booster’s limits, it will test “off-nominal scenarios” upon return, requiring for safety that it land in the Gulf of Mexico and not be recaptured by the chopsticks. (Just as I don’t change names or my language willy-nilly because leftists demand it, I won’t play Trump’s name-changing game here. The Gulf of Mexico was given that name more than two centuries ago, most likely by the early Spanish explorers, and that name has been good enough since.)
Starship meanwhile attempt the same test profile planned for the previous two flights but stymied by the failure of the spacecraft before reaching orbit. It will test a Starlink satellite deployment system, do a relight of one of its Raptor engines, and test its thermal ability to survive re-entry.
The company also released a report describing the results of its investigation into the previous launch failure on March 6, 2025.
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.
There has been a lot of speculation by armchair engineers about the previous two failures, mostly focused on the issue of harmonics and vibration. This report indicates that was not the problem of the eighth flight, and had actually been resolved. If so, the odds of this ninth flight flying to completion are good.
This announcement coincides with the FAA’s issuance of a launch license late yesterday. As I predicted, unlike during the Biden administration the FAA quickly accepted SpaceX’s submitted investigation and issued the license, rather than spending one to three months retyping it. It is very clear the slow-walking effort during Biden has ended under Trump.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Gulf as we Texans call it has been called the Gulf of Mexico off and on for nearly 500 years. The name was recorded multiple different ways for about half that period of time. If Trump had only named it Gulf of the Americas it would have been more fitting.
There is actually more coastline on the US part than on the Mexican part. Besides who wants to name it after a failed State?
Gulf of the Americas is wrong because it has nothing to do with South America at all. Gulf of the United States would be OK.
Interesting that of all the countries in the Americas the United States of America is the only one mentioning the word “America”.
I guess I don’t understand the big deal about the Gulf of America name. If Mexico wants to keep calling it the Gulf of Mexico, they can and the US can call it the Gulf of America. There is a narrow body of water between England and France. England calls it “the English Channel” and France calls it “La Manche” which translates to “the sleeve” in English, not “the English Channel”. Why can’t Mexico and the US have different names for this body of water?
To be fair to the Aztecs in the area, let’s try the original name…
“Chalchiuhtlicueyecatl”.
Okay, maybe not.
“Gulf of Florida” was an original Spanish name in the early 1500’s. But, I like Gulf of America more and more these days.
I had really hoped the early Starhopper Skill Level One welding approach had panned out—Salvage One style.
It looks slicker and slicker…like how all the soapbox derby cars are all teardrops and aren’t even soapboxes anymore..like these :)
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/fat-albert-1970s-animation-cels-lot-413525395
Proper nouns are the least of our problems. If we’re going to try to fix English, let’s start with getting rid of the letter “c” (although what happens to “ch” is a bit problematic). Then we kan move on to William The Bastard’s (who niknames someone that; it’s just asking for problems) influense. merang, patay, eatery, and bujwah come to mind. And why on Earth does “shoes” rhyme with “snooze”?