Elon Musk's Starship to launch ninth test flight following recent setbacks

Rocket will attempt to deploy mock Starlink satellites

SpaceX's Starship lifts off from Starbase in Texas, in March. AFP

SpaceX is to carry out the ninth test flight of its deep-space rocket Starship early on Wednesday, as it aims to keep its bold ambitions to journey to Mars on course.

The launch in Texas follows failed attempts to recover the Starship spacecraft during test flights seven and eight, which set back SpaceX’s development of the 121-metre rocket.

Starship, a two-stage rocket system that consists of the Super Heavy Booster and the Starship spacecraft, will release eight mock Starlink satellites during the test flight.

The last two test flights ended in failure before the satellites could be deployed.

“The Starship upper stage will repeat its suborbital trajectory and target objectives not reached on the previous two flight tests, including the first payload deployment from Starship and multiple re-entry experiments geared towards returning the vehicle to the launch site for catch,” SpaceX said in a statement.

The test flight is scheduled for 3.30am GST on Wednesday, with a live broadcast starting 30 minutes earlier on SpaceX’s website.

Despite the loss of the Starship spacecraft in the previous two test flights, the company managed to recover the Super Heavy Booster by capturing it mid-air with mechanical arms on a launch tower.

This time, however, SpaceX plans a splashdown of the vehicle to test new landing techniques and collect data.

Despite back-to-back failures this year, the company has made significant progress in developing the Starship rocket system since its first test flight in 2023. These have included recovering the booster using the mechanical arms and bringing back the spacecraft after some flights.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk is developing Starship to eventually send humans to Mars.

The billionaire is due to give an update on Tuesday on SpaceX's plans to “make life multiplanetary”. This will be streamed live on the X platform at 8.55pm GST.

The company also has a $2.89 billion contract with Nasa to develop a Starship system to land astronauts on the Moon.

It has been carrying out test flights to prepare the rocket for commercial operations.

SpaceX recently secured permission to increase its launches from five to 25 per year from the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Dr Sarath Raj, project director of the Satellite Ground Station at Dubai's Amity University, told The National earlier this month that the move will “significantly accelerate” the rocket’s development.

“This substantial increase from the previous limit allows SpaceX to implement a rapid iterative testing campaign, quickly identifying and rectifying design or operational flaws through frequent flight data,” he said.

“Each launch provides invaluable real-world performance data crucial for refining the Starship system, including its novel full reusability aspects.”

SpaceX's Starship Spacecraft explodes minutes into flight

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SpaceX has also used this rapid development approach for its flagship Falcon rockets, building and testing them quickly to gather data and make improvements.

But frequent test flights of Starship have been a challenge due to strict requirements.

On May 3, SpaceX's launch site Starbase became a city in Texas, after residents of the area, many of whom are SpaceX employees, voted in favour of Mr Musk's proposal.

SpaceX’s progress also comes as Nasa, which is US government-funded, faces budget cuts.

The White House’s proposed budget cuts cast doubt on Nasa projects such as the SLS rocket and Orion capsule, which would both be used to take astronauts to the Moon.

Lin Kayser, co-founder of Dubai company Leap 71, which develops artificial intelligence models to generate rocket engines, said Starship could be the foundation of US ambitions of exploring deep space.

“With the future of Nasa’s SLS and Orion uncertain due to rising costs and limited reusability, Starship is increasingly emerging as the de facto backbone of US launch infrastructure,” he said.

“SpaceX is already the primary launch provider for the US government and with Starship it becomes a near-monopoly at the high end of launch capability. That level of centralisation raises strategic concerns but it also highlights how far ahead SpaceX has pulled.”