SpaceX is rushing to test adjustments to its Starship rocket after two recent launch failures and is planning a ninth test flight next week.
The next Starship launch could take place as early as next week. The Raptor engine test suggests SpaceX has resolved issues that have plagued recent flights, according to Wired.
SpaceX fired six Raptor engines on its next Starship rocket on the morning of May 12, clearing a major hurdle on the way to a test launch later this month that will put the private rocket program back on track. Starship fired its Raptor engines earlier this week on a test stand near SpaceX's Starbase launch facility in southern Texas. The engine fired for about 60 seconds, and SpaceX confirmed the test in a post on social media X, according to Space.
SpaceX has not officially announced a specific launch date, but maritime alerts along Starship's flight path in the Gulf of Mexico suggest the launch could take place as early as next Wednesday, May 21. If all goes according to plan, Starship will fly into space and fly halfway around Earth to re-enter the atmosphere and make a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean.
After a successful static fire test, SpaceX is in the final stages of preparing for Starship's ninth full-scale test flight. Last month, SpaceX tested the rocket's giant booster engine, called Super Heavy. The Super Heavy booster chosen for the next Starship launch will be the first stage that SpaceX reuses from a previous test flight.
This is a major step forward for the Starship program. SpaceX wants the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage to be quickly reusable, operating more like an airplane than a traditional rocket. The booster, scheduled for flight 9, will first fly in January 2025 to the edge of space, release the Starship upper stage, and return to the launch pad, where it will be grabbed by a heavy mechanical arm nicknamed the “grabber.” SpaceX will attempt to grab the Super Heavy booster again on flight 9.
While reusing the first stage is a notable milestone, the next flight is important for another reason. SpaceX’s last two Starship test flights ended prematurely when the rocket’s upper stage spun out of control, sending debris crashing into the ocean near the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
With flight 9, SpaceX hopes to get the Starship program back on track. The company had set a goal of 25 Starship test flights this year, but now it’s unlikely to hit that number. Short-term goals after the ninth flight include returning Starship from low Earth orbit to the launch site and catching it with a grabber similar to the one SpaceX uses to retrieve its Super Heavy booster.
SpaceX will then begin flight testing of its space refueling system, which transfers supercooled liquid propellant between two Starship vehicles in orbit. This is a key milestone for NASA, which has a more than $4 billion contract with SpaceX to develop a version of Starship that can carry humans to the moon. To do that, SpaceX must launch about 10 Starship refueling ships (the exact number is unknown) to refuel the Starship lander before it leaves low Earth orbit.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk also wants Starship to fly to Mars, which requires proficiency in refueling in space. NASA may also soon rely on Starship and other massive commercial rockets to launch astronauts from Earth. Before those goals become a reality, SpaceX must overcome the hurdles of two previous test flights. Both flights failed at the same time, about eight minutes after liftoff, near the end of the ship’s engine burn. SpaceX’s team of investigators, working under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration, determined that the Starship test flight in January failed due to a propellant leak that led to a fire in the rocket’s rear chamber, causing the engine to shut down prematurely and explode.
Engineers concluded that the leak was most likely caused by vibrations during the vehicle’s flight into space. The vibrations resonated with the rocket’s natural oscillations, increasing the vibrations beyond what SpaceX had anticipated. For the next test flight on March 6, SpaceX changed the fuel line to the Raptor engine, adjusted the propellant temperature, and flew the engine in a new throttle configuration. But that didn’t solve the problem. Once again, Starship’s engines shut down too early, and the rocket exploded before falling to Earth.
The similarities between the two failures point to a design problem with the upgraded “Block 2” version of Starship. Starship Block 2 is slightly taller than the one SpaceX used for the rocket’s first six flights, with redesigned flaps, improved batteries and electronics, and notably a system of new fuel lines for the ship’s Raptor vacuum engine. SpaceX has not yet released the results of its investigation into the eighth flight failure. The FAA has not yet issued a launch license for the ninth flight of the Starship vehicle, nicknamed Ship 35.
The vehicle will now return to Starbase, where technicians will make final preparations for the ninth flight, including loading simulated Starlink broadband satellites into the ship’s cargo bay and completing the heat shield. The previous failure prevented Starship from testing the satellite deployment and the upgraded heat shield, which is designed to withstand temperatures of up to 1,430 degrees Celsius during reentry.