SpaceX says the tenth built-in take a look at flight of its Tremendous Heavy Starship launch automobile might launch as quickly as Aug. 24.
Liftoff from the corporate’s Starbase, Texas, manufacturing and take a look at website is anticipated throughout a launch window that begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT). SpaceX introduced the launch date on X Friday (Aug. 15), about one week later than SpaceX CEO Elon Musk predicted in mid-July when he estimated Starship would launch once more in “about three weeks.”
Flight 10 shall be Starship’s fourth launch of 2025, and comes at a vital junction within the spacecraft’s growth. Starship’s three beforehand flights this yr have ended with the lack of the higher stage, and with every loss comes a tighter squeeze on the timeline to prepared the automobile to function the lunar lander for the astronauts on NASA’s Artemis 3 mission to the floor of the moon, slated for someday in 2027.
The absolutely stacked, the Tremendous Heavy booster and the Starship higher stage stand about 394 toes (120 meters) tall. Flight 10 will fly Booster 16 and Ship 37, each Block 2 variants of the evolving launch automobile, as SpaceX introduces incremental upgrades for every mission.
The launch follows Flight 9, which lifted off Might 27 and ended with the Ship higher stage breaking up in area about 45 minutes into flight. Lower than a month later, on June 18, a static take a look at fireplace at Starbase resulted in an explosion, destroying Ship 36 — the automobile unique slated for Flight 10 — and damaging SpaceX take a look at infrastructure.
These mishap investigations accomplished, Starship Flight 10 is headed to the launchpad with a contemporary set of mission aims. As soon as in area, after stage separation, Starship will deploy eight Starlink satellite tv for pc mass simulators, carry out an in-space Raptor engine relight and try a managed splashdown within the Indian Ocean. Booster 16, in the meantime, will alter its trajectory for a managed splashdown within the Gulf of Mexico.
The tenth flight take a look at of Starship is getting ready to launch as quickly as Sunday, August 24 → https://t.co/UIwbeGoo2B pic.twitter.com/j0YKKgAxAVAugust 15, 2025
Of the 9 Starship take a look at flights to this point, a number of have achieved partial success — together with catching a Tremendous Heavy booster utilizing the launch tower “Mechazilla” chopstick arms and refurbishing it for reuse — however not have but met all mission aims from launch to touchdown.
SpaceX is creating Starship as a part of Musk’s imaginative and prescient to make human life multiplanetary by sending folks to Mars, and can be central to NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon for long-duration missions.
