Tomorrow SpaceX will attempt its next Starship suborbital flight test dubbed Starship Flight 9. The mission is once again a repeat of the previous two and plans to hopefully solve the problems that plagued Flight 7 and Flight 8 earlier this year.
Cleared. The FAA has cleared SpaceX to launch its ninth Starship test flight after closing out its mishap investigation into Flight 8. However, the clearance and back-to-back in-flight failures have caused the FAA to add more restrictions on at least Flight 9 and potential future Starship test flights.
The hazard area is now much larger, nearly double the size as Flight 8’s at more than 1,600 nautical miles and reaching from the Texas Gulf Coast to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Starship Flight 9’s launch cannot take place during peak commercial air traffic times, and flights around the corridor will be diverted or delayed by up to 40 minutes during Starship’s flight through the area. Nearly 70 routes through the Gulf of Mexico will be closed.
Fly. Break. Fly Again. SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 will see several milestones that you should be familiar with if you watched the previous two test flights.
Starship Flight 9 will be SpaceX’s third test flight with the new Block 2 Starship upper stage, aka “ship.” This new design has a reworked propellant feed system, stretched tanks, upgraded heat shield, and various other upgrades over the Block 1 variant. These systems need to be tested through an entire flight, something that has yet to happen so far.
SpaceX also hopes to complete some key tests that will be useful for future Starship flights, like deploying dummy Starlink satellites and relighting a Raptor engine in space.
The company is also hoping to get some good flight data both on the vehicle as a whole and, importantly, on the new heat shield.
Welcome Back Old Friend. Flying on this mission in Ship 35 but launching that vehicle will be Super Heavy Booster 14. You may remember that booster’s tail number from Flight 7, as it successfully launched and returned to its launch site for a catch in January.
This will be Starship’s first taste of vehicle reusability and also played a role in the FAA’s extended flight hazards for Flight 9’s launch. SpaceX has already reflown Raptor engines but has never reflown an entire vehicle, at least not since its low-altitude hop days.
An Update. Elon Musk will take the stage a few hours before Flight 9’s launch for a brief update on the company’s Starship program and future missions to Mars. Starship Flight 9 is planned to launch no earlier than 6:30 P.M. CT from Starbase, Texas, and Musk’s update will be at 12:00 P.M. CT.
Both are to be live-streamed on X.
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