The FAA cleared SpaceX’s starship last week flew again after review of the previous flight, which ended with an explosion, and now the next test can take off on Tuesday. SpaceX will watch Starship’s ninth flight test on May 27 and opens the window at 7:30 PM ET (6:30 PM local time in Starbucks, Texas). This release will mark SpaceX’s first re-lifting booster. The booster that flew before nine years old underwent the seventh flight test of Starship earlier this year. While disposable parts have been replaced, SpaceX says it is reusing 29 of Booster’s 33 Raptor engines.
As always, starting at home for about 30 minutes, viewers at home will be able to adjust the live broadcast. This will be available on SpaceX’s website and broadcasts of its X profile.
SpaceX conducted its eighth flight test for Starship in March, but the vehicle had some problems just minutes after launch. The super heavy booster was able to return to the launch site after being separated from the previous stage and was successfully grabbed by the tower’s “chopsticks” arm, but for the ship itself, several Raptor engines were shut down, causing it to fall and eventually blow up.
SpaceX said the problem could be due to “a hardware failure in one of the Raptor engines in the upper stage that caused unintentional propellant mixing and ignition.” Since then, it has made some changes to prevent this from happening again. “The engines on the Starship stage will get additional preload on key joints, new nitrogen cleaning systems, and improvements in propellant drainage systems,” SpaceX said in its latest news on May 22.
For Flight Ninth, the super booster will not return to the launch site, but will splash out in the ocean. Starship will attempt to deploy eight Starlink virtual satellites on the stage, and SpaceX is otherwise looking for the flight to test “several experiments to bring Starship’s upper stage back to the launch site.”
