Starship touches space again but fails to deliver payload in ambitious ninth test VIDEO

SpaceX's Starship program reached a significant, yet technically challenging milestone on May 27 with its ninth integrated flight test.

The launch, which lifted off at 6:36 p.m. Central Time from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas, featured the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster—a critical step toward rapid reusability. However, the mission ultimately ended in partial failure, with both the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage experiencing issues that prevented full mission success, Caliber.Az reports via the company.

The Super Heavy booster, having previously flown during January's seventh test flight, executed a full-duration ascent burn powered by all 33 of its Raptor engines. The booster successfully separated from the upper stage via a complex hot-staging maneuver and performed its first deterministic flip before initiating a boostback burn.

During descent, the Super Heavy demonstrated flight at a higher angle of attack—a key aerodynamic experiment aimed at increasing atmospheric drag to slow the vehicle more efficiently, thereby conserving landing propellant. This maneuver is intended to enhance performance for future iterations of the booster.

As the Super Heavy approached its designated splashdown zone in the Gulf of Mexico, it reignited 13 of its Raptor engines in preparation for landing. However, contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of its landing burn. SpaceX confirmed that the vehicle experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” approximately six minutes into the flight, marking an abrupt end to the first reflight attempt of a Super Heavy.

The upper stage, Starship, continued its ascent following successful stage separation and ignited all six Raptor engines for a full-duration burn. This flight included several engineering mitigations based on data from the previous test, including enhanced structural joint strength, a new nitrogen purge system, and updates to the propellant drain mechanism.

During its orbital coast phase, Starship was scheduled to conduct two critical demonstrations: the opening of its payload bay door to deploy eight Starlink simulator satellites, and a relight of a single Raptor engine in space. However, the payload bay door failed to open, preventing satellite deployment. A subsequent attitude control error further impacted mission objectives, forcing the cancellation of the Raptor engine relight and preventing Starship from orienting itself correctly for planned reentry.

The vehicle then underwent an automated safing sequence to vent remaining pressures, minimizing risk during reentry. Contact was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, with all debris expected to fall within the predetermined hazard zone in the Indian Ocean.

Despite the setbacks, SpaceX emphasized the mission’s key achievements, particularly the reuse of a flight-proven Super Heavy booster—a foundational step toward routine orbital launches. “Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable,” SpaceX noted in its post-flight summary, “but every lesson learned marks progress toward Starship’s goal of enabling life to become multiplanetary.”

Liftoff of Starship! pic.twitter.com/aXAwLkRbuK

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 27, 2025

By Vafa Guliyeva