When SpaceX last launched its spacecraft and super heavy rocket, the upper stage collapsed spectacularly over the Atlantic. Two months later, SpaceX has fewer explosive results and is set to try again today.
However, Monday’s attempt was scrubbed, but the company was able to try it out right away on Tuesday.
Starship’s 8th flight test live webcast starts now https://t.co/q9htusymtf
– SpaceX (@Spacex) March 3, 2025
The launch on January 16th saw the successful catch of the ultra-heavy booster at the Texas launch site, but after passing the Gulf of Mexico, the spacecraft exploded in scenes posted to social media from places like Turks & Caicos.
🚨New feature: An incredible view of Spaceship 7 that broke the Turks and Caicos tonight
Imagine watching this on your house🤣pic.twitter.com/ndydetk4wc
– Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 16, 2025
The event took root on a rocket in development, but the Federal Aviation Administration cleared it as of February 26th to be released again.
“After completing a necessary and comprehensive safety review, the FAA has determined that SpaceX Starship vehicles can return to flight operations and the January 16th Starship Flight 7 Mishap investigation remains open,” the FAA said. “The FAA oversees SpaceX-led investigations.”
Still, the FAA cleared Monday’s attempt. This is the eighth intraorbital launch of the giant rocket that was targeting it at 6:45pm in a 60-minute launch window from Bocachica, Texas. However, the attempt was scrubbed.
“The FAA has determined that SpaceX meets all safety, environmental and other licensing requirements for suborbital test flights,” the FAA said.
Again, SpaceX attempts to catch a booster, but the Upper Starship Stage flies eastward almost halfway across the globe, aiming for a water landing in the Indian Ocean west of Australia.
“Several hardware and operational changes have been made to improve the reliability of the upper stage,” SpaceX posted on its website.
The purpose that we didn’t reach during the last attempt is to tap again. This includes the deployment of payloads and test runs of re-entry experiments. This hopes the company will return to the Texas launch site and land to lead to future launches.
The four test payloads simulate the size of SpaceX’s StarLink satellites, following the same trajectory of the spacecraft stage at the top, burning out upon re-entry.
“Development testing by definition is unpredictable,” SpaceX posted. “However, by placing flight hardware in the flight environment as often as possible, we can quickly learn and implement design changes with the aim of bringing spacecraft online as fully and quickly reusable vehicles.”
All previous test flights have been made from Texas, but SpaceX has two planned launch sites from Florida’s Space Coast. Already, it’s adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center launch complex 39-A, where the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy Missions will be launched. It also aims to build a tower at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This will take over Space Release Complex 37, home to the final release of United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy.
Environmental impact studies for both sites began in 2024, but are expected to be completed this year.
SpaceX’s plan is for hundreds of spacecraft to be launched in a year, part of Musk’s goal of building infrastructure in Florida and potentially other launch sites to create colonies on Mars.
However, NASA is waiting for a practical version of the spacecraft to act as a human landing system for the Artemis III mission, which is aiming to fly in mid-2027, marking the first humans, including the first women, to step into the moon since the end of the Apollo program in 1972.
NASA requires SpaceX to successfully complete an irregular flight of the starry sky landing on the moon prior to its mission.
Original issue: March 3, 2025, 4:42pm EST
