FAA says SpaceX must wait to launch Starship on 9th flight test from Texas: Here's why
SpaceX has a few more regulatory hurdles to clear before its gigantic Starship spacecraft can soar halfway around the world once again.
Billionaire Elon Musk had made it known he hoped his commercial spaceflight company could launch the 400-foot rocket much sooner than federal regulators are apparently willing to allow. In a recent announcement, the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, said approval for Starship's next flight test is pending the completion of an investigation into the vehicle's previous explosion.
The Starship launch vehicle, which has been under development for years, has exploded twice in its first two demonstrations of 2025. While an investigation into the first fiery mishap in January has concluded, the FAA and SpaceX have yet to put the final touches on a similar inquiry into the most recent flight in March.
The delay comes as Musk, a close adviser of President Donald Trump, looks for SpaceX to significantly ramp up the testing of a vehicle that is due to play a significant role in upcoming U.S. spaceflight missions.
The FAA announced May 15 that it had approved license modifications officially granting SpaceX's request to increase the number of Starship launches from Starbase in South Texas to 25 per year.
"However, SpaceX may not launch until the FAA either closes the Starship Flight 8 mishap investigation or makes a return to flight determination," the agency said in a May 15 statement. "The FAA is reviewing the mishap report SpaceX submitted on May 14."
The two mishaps of 2025 prompted government officials in the United Kingdom to send a letter to the U.S. State Department, requesting that next flight's trajectory be changed to protect British territories in the Caribbean, ProPublica reported.
The mishaps are part of the reason federal regulators also announced that the FAA is expanding the size of aircraft and maritime hazard areas in the U.S. and other countries for the next flight test. The decision is also because SpaceX intends to reuse for the first time a Super Heavy booster rocket that has launched before.
Musk had hinted on Tuesday, May 13, that SpaceX could launch its Starship "next week" on its ninth flight test from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas.
Maritime warnings over the Gulf of Mexico, renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America, even suggested the launch was being targeted for Wednesday, May 21. An updated advisory now indicates a launch is planned as early as Tuesday, May 27.
SpaceX, though, hasn't officially announced a target launch date while it awaits a green light from the FAA.
SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is intended to carry both cargo and humans to Earth's orbit and deeper into the cosmos.
NASA's lunar exploration plans, which appear to be in jeopardy under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface.
But Musk is more preoccupied with Starship reaching Mars – potentially, he has claimed, by the end of 2026. Under his vision, human expeditions aboard the Starship could then follow in the years after the first uncrewed spacecraft reaches the Red Planet.
Starship is regarded as the world's largest and most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship towers over SpaceX's famous Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active – which stands at nearly 230 feet.
The launch vehicle is composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage spacecraft, or capsule.
Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX's Raptor engines. The upper section, also called Starship or Ship for short, is the upper stage powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit.
The first two flight tests of 2025 ended in dramatic explosions that sent cascades of fiery debris streaking across the sky. In both cases, the upper stage, the vehicle where astronauts and cargo would ride, came apart mere minutes into its flight instead of landing as planned in the Indian Ocean.
SpaceX is working with the FAA to investigate both mishaps, the most recent of which occurred March 6.
In a similar investigation into the first explosion of the year on Jan. 16, SpaceX concluded the mishap was due to a series of propellant leaks and fires in the aft section of the vehicle that caused 'all but one of Starship's engines to execute controlled shut down sequences." This led to the communication breakdown and the vehicle to trigger its own self destruction.
"With a test like this, success comes from what we learn, and today's flight will help us improve Starship's reliability,' the company said after the March 6 mishap. 'We will conduct a thorough investigation, in coordination with the FAA, and implement corrective actions to make improvements on future Starship flight tests.'
While the Starship has reached space, it has yet to reach Earth's orbit in any of its eight flight tests – instead traveling at a lower-altitude on a suborbital trajectory.
The vehicle has also not exploded on every iteration. In three tests between June and November 2024, Starship flew halfway around the world before reentering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down as planned in the Indian Ocean – critical proof that its basic design is functional.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: SpaceX will have to wait to launch Starship again from Texas: Here's why
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