SpaceX is gearing up for the tenth test flight of its megarocket following a streak of failures that have cast doubt on Starship’s ability to fly to Mars in 2026.
Starship is slated for lift-off on Sunday, August 24, during a launch window that opens at 7:30 p.m. ET. SpaceX recently wrapped up investigations into the rocket’s previous test flight, which took place on May 27 and ended with the vehicle breaking apart during reentry. This was the third Starship flight of 2025 and the latest in a series of failures. For flight 10, SpaceX has integrated hardware and operational changes to its rocket in an effort to increase its reliability, according to the company.
Starship’s test flight will be broadcast live on SpaceX’s website, as well as the company’s X account. You can also tune in through the live feed below.
Sunday’s test flight will attempt similar mission objectives that went unfulfilled during previous flights due to various anomalies. For the fourth time in a row, SpaceX will attempt a payload deployment test. For this test, the rocket will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, each similar in size and weight to the company’s next-generation satellites. Rather than remaining in orbit, these Starlinks are designed to follow a suborbital trajectory and are expected to burn up during reentry.
During the upcoming test flight, SpaceX will not attempt to catch the rocket’s Super Heavy booster at the launch mount. Instead, the booster will head on a trajectory to an offshore landing point in the Gulf of Mexico to test its landing burn. During the descent, one of the booster’s three engines will shut down to test the ability of a backup engine to take over. The booster will then use two center engines for the final landing burn, hovering briefly above the ocean before dropping into the Gulf of Mexico.
For Starship’s upper stage, SpaceX has removed several tiles from its heat shield to “stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle during reentry,” the company wrote. The tiles were removed from vulnerable areas and hot spots that were observed during Starship’s sixth flight test.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX the green light for Starship’s upcoming flight after concluding the investigation into Flight 9. The investigation traced the mishap from the previous flight to structural issues that resulted in “a mixing of methane and liquid oxygen and subsequent ignition,” SpaceX wrote in a statement. To avoid similar issues during upcoming flights, SpaceX said it would lower the booster’s descent angle to reduce aerodynamic forces and prevent another failure.
The company also addressed the explosion that took place on June 18 at SpaceX’s Massey facility near Starbase. The explosion annihilated the Starship prototype that was supposed to fly on Flight 10. SpaceX traced the anomaly to damage to a composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV), which stores nitrogen in Starship’s payload bay. “To address the issue, COPVs on upcoming flights will operate at a reduced pressure with additional inspections and proof tests added prior to loading reactive propellants onto a vehicle,” the company wrote.
Starship has had a rough run since the beginning of the year. The rocket’s seventh test flight in January ended with Starship’s upper stage exploding roughly eight-and-a-half minutes after launch. Starship’s upper stage met a similar fate during its eighth test flight in March when six of its nine Raptor engines died during the ascent burn. During Starship’s most recent test flight in May, the rocket also suffered a slew of failures. Although the vehicle reached its planned velocity, a propellant leak led to loss of control, and it broke apart during reentry after failing to achieve its mission objectives.
SpaceX said it has made several changes to its rocket to avoid yet another failure during flight test number 10, hoping that Starship finally breaks its long losing streak.
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