SpaceX says the 10th integrated test flight of its Super Heavy Starship launch vehicle could launch as soon as Aug. 24.<\/p>\n
Liftoff from the company’s Starbase<\/a>, Texas, manufacturing and test site is expected during a launch window that begins at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT). SpaceX<\/a> announced the launch date on X Friday (Aug. 15), about one week later than SpaceX CEO Elon Musk predicted in mid-July<\/a> when he estimated Starship would launch again in “about three weeks.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Flight 10 will be Starship’s fourth launch of 2025, and comes at a critical junction in the spacecraft’s development. Starship’s three previously flights this year have ended with the loss of the upper stage, and with each loss comes a tighter squeeze on the timeline to ready the vehicle to serve as the lunar lander for the astronauts on NASA’s Artemis 3<\/a> mission to the surface of the moon<\/a>, slated for sometime in 2027.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n The fully stacked, the Super Heavy<\/a> booster and the Starship upper stage stand about 394 feet (120 meters) tall. Flight 10 will fly Booster 16 and Ship 37, both Block 2 variants of the evolving launch vehicle, as SpaceX introduces incremental upgrades for each mission.<\/p>\n The launch follows Flight 9, which lifted off May 27<\/a> and ended with the Ship upper stage breaking apart in space about 45 minutes into flight. Less than a month later, on June 18, a static test fire at Starbase resulted in an explosion<\/a>, destroying Ship 36 \u2014 the vehicle original slated for Flight 10 \u2014 and damaging SpaceX test infrastructure.<\/p>\n Those mishap investigations completed<\/a>, Starship Flight 10 is headed to the launchpad with a fresh set of mission objectives. Once in space, after stage separation, Starship will deploy eight Starlink<\/a> satellite mass simulators, perform an in-space Raptor engine relight and attempt a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Booster 16, meanwhile, will alter its trajectory for a controlled splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n The tenth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Sunday, August 24 \u2192 https:\/\/t.co\/UIwbeGoo2B pic.twitter.com\/j0YKKgAxAVAugust 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Of the nine Starship test flights so far, several have achieved partial success \u2014 including catching a Super Heavy booster<\/a> using the launch tower “Mechazilla” chopstick arms and refurbishing it for reuse \u2014 but not have yet met all mission objectives from launch to landing.<\/p>\n SpaceX is developing Starship as part of Musk’s vision to make human life multiplanetary by sending people to Mars, and is also central to NASA’s Artemis program<\/a> to return astronauts to the moon for long-duration missions.<\/p>\n\n