SpaceX: Starship Flight 10 to lift off on August 24 Video

SpaceX plans to carry out the 10th integrated test flight of its Super Heavy Starship rocket on August 24, marking the latest step in the development of the spacecraft designed for missions to the Moon and Mars.

The launch from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas is scheduled during a window opening at 7:30 pm EDT (2330 GMT), Caliber.Az reports per Space.com.

The date was confirmed on X on Friday, around a week later than SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk’s mid-July prediction that the next flight would take place in “about three weeks.”

Flight 10 will be the fourth Starship launch of 2025 and comes at a pivotal stage for the programme. The three earlier flights this year each ended with the loss of the upper stage, placing greater pressure on SpaceX’s timeline to prepare the vehicle for its role as NASA’s Artemis 3 lunar lander, currently planned for 2027.

Standing around 394 feet (120 metres) tall, the fully assembled rocket comprises the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage. This mission will use Booster 16 and Ship 37, both Block 2 versions incorporating incremental upgrades.

The previous mission, Flight 9, launched on May 27 but saw the upper stage break apart in space roughly 45 minutes into flight. On June 18, a static test fire ended in an explosion, destroying Ship 36 — the vehicle originally intended for Flight 10 — and damaging test infrastructure at Starbase.

The tenth flight test of Starship is preparing to launch as soon as Sunday, August 24 → https://t.co/UIwbeGoo2B pic.twitter.com/j0YKKgAxAV

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 15, 2025

With investigations into both incidents now complete, SpaceX says Flight 10 will aim to deploy eight Starlink satellite mass simulators, carry out an in-space Raptor engine restart and attempt a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Booster 16 will target a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico.

Of the nine Starship test flights to date, several have delivered partial successes, such as catching a Super Heavy booster with the “Mechazilla” launch tower arms for refurbishment, but none has yet achieved all mission objectives from launch to landing.

Starship is central to Musk’s ambition to make human life multiplanetary, with plans to send crews to Mars, and is also a key element of NASA’s strategy to return astronauts to the Moon for extended missions.

By Aghakazim Guliyev