Starship’s Next Test Flight Targeted for August 24th

SpaceX has announced plans to launch its tenth integrated test flight of the Super Heavy Starship launch vehicle as early as August 24th. The anticipated liftoff from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Texas is scheduled during a launch window commencing at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT), according to an announcement made on X Friday. This revised timeline follows an earlier prediction by Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, who had initially estimated the resumption of Starship flights within approximately three weeks in mid-July.

Flight 10 will represent Starship’s fourth launch attempt this year and occurs at a pivotal stage in the vehicle’s developmental journey. The previous three flight tests experienced failures involving the upper stage, intensifying the pressure to accelerate progress toward operational readiness, particularly given Starship’s selection as NASA’s lunar lander for the Artemis 3 mission aiming to return astronauts to the Moon by 2027.

The fully assembled launch stack – comprising the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage – reaches a towering height of approximately 394 feet (120 meters). The upcoming flight will utilize Booster 16 and Ship 37, both representing Block 2 iterations of the spacecraft incorporating incremental enhancements for each mission.

The launch follows Flight 9 on May 27th, which concluded with disintegration of the Starship upper stage roughly 45 minutes after liftoff. Subsequently, a static test firing at Starbase on June 18th resulted in an explosion, destroying Ship 36—the original candidate for Flight 10—and inflicting damage to SpaceX’s supporting infrastructure. Investigations into these incidents have been completed, paving the way for Flight 10 with revised objectives. During its flight profile, Starship is expected to deploy eight mass simulators of Starlink satellites, execute an in-space Raptor engine restart sequence and attempt a controlled descent into the Indian Ocean. Concurrently, Booster 16 will be steered toward a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

To date, nine Starship test flights have been conducted; while some have demonstrated partial successes – notably, the capture of a Super Heavy booster with “Mechazilla’s” specialized robotic arms facilitating its refurbishment for reuse – none have achieved complete mission success from initial launch to landing.

SpaceX’s ongoing development of Starship aligns with Elon Musk’s broader ambitions of establishing human settlements beyond Earth and is integral to NASA’s Artemis program, which seeks to facilitate extended lunar exploration by astronauts.