The saga of getting Starship SN9 to launch continues after the FAA, which oversees commercial space launch licenses, did not approve SpaceX’s request to launch last week. This pushes the nearest possible launch opportunity to this week. In the meantime, SpaceX kept teams busy by bringing the next Starship prototype to its pad to begin testing.

Remember when SpaceX’s Starship SN9 was supposed to be a quick static fire then 12.5 km hop? Yeah, seems like that is fully out the window for this vehicle at least. Another week went by full of hope to see a flight by the end of the week, but again we are back to waiting for a static fire to be completed.

SpaceX is working hard to get Starship SN9 ready to fly the next 12.5 km flight early this month, but there are still a few tests that need to be done prior to the next milestone.

Production at SpaceX’s Starship facility in Boca Chica, Texas, has increased with SN10 receiving its nose cone and SN11 having all of its fuel tanks stacked. Alongside the progressing next vehicles to fly are scattered ring sections ready to be assembled into SN12 and beyond. SpaceX seems to have no shortage of Starships to continue testing after SN9’s flight — even if it doesn’t survive the landing again.