SpaceX’s colossal Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster—which stand nearly as tall as the Great Pyramid of Giza when stacked—could fly again as soon as next week, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Musk made the prediction Tuesday in a post on social media platform X, replying to SpaceX’s post that Starship completed static fire engine testing and is “undergoing final preparations for the ninth flight test.”
Starship exploded on back-to-back test flights in January and March, disrupting air travel and prompting the FAA to alert nearby aircraft to cascading debris. The rocket is grounded while SpaceX completes an FAA-mandated mishap investigation. But the agency signed off on Flight 8 before the company wrapped up its investigation into the previous flight. It was ultimately closed three weeks later on March 28.
SpaceX has yet to share details on the objectives for Flight 9. But it will likely include an attempt to snare the Super Heavy booster out of the sky using a pair of metal chopsticks. Like Starship, Super Heavy is designed to be reusable, which lowers its cost to launch. The company has attempted a booster catch on every attempt since it achieved the maneuver for the first time in history in October, with additional successes on Flights 7 and 8.
An on-orbit engine relight—first achieved on Flight 6—may also be in the cards. That capability will be essential for the Starship human landing system (HLS) variant, which will fuel up at an orbital depot before flying four NASA astronauts to the moon on the Artemis III mission. Another SpaceX objective this year is to demonstrate how Starship will transport that propellant to orbit, which NASA estimates will require 16 trips—Musk puts that figure at eight.
The company will be hoping for a successful Starship reentry and splashdown, which would allow it to gauge how different “catch-enabling” configurations perform on the upper stage. On Flight 6, for example, it stripped heat shield titles in locations where hardware—similar to that of Super Heavy—could be installed. Demonstrating the reusability of both stages is a critical goal for SpaceX.
As it gears up for Flight 9, SpaceX is eyeing an increased cadence of Starship launches from its Starbase facility in Texas. The FAA last month published a final environmental assessment of the firm’s proposal, which would expand the number of annual launches from five to 25.
It is also building facilities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida—where it launches its workhorse Falcon 9—in hopes of launching Starship from the Space Coast. An FAA environmental impact statement (EIS) would be required for the move.
SpaceX will need to ramp up Starship testing to meet its ambitious 2025 goals, which include an uncrewed flight to the moon. The mission will launch no earlier than mid-2027, giving it about two years to prove that Starship HLS is fit to carry astronauts.
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