May 27 (UPI) — SpaceX is set to conduct its ninth test flight of its Starship spacecraft Tuesday after the vessel that it plans to ultimately use to send humans to space exploded in the sky during the two previous tests.
The window for the latest flight test from Starbase, Texas, opens at 7:30 p.m. EDT and will be streamed live on SpaceX’s website.
The test flight is to be the first ever takeoff powered by a “flight-proven Super Heavy booster,” which SpaceX hopes such boosters will one day be “capable of multiple launches per day.”
The Super Heavy will execute experiments after blastoff to generate data intended to help improve the vessel’s future dependability and performance. The Starship stage of the rocket will attempt to deploy eight satellite simulators for the first time ever and will also relight its engine while in space.
Additionally, some of the protective thermal tiles usually attached to protect Starship from heat have been removed for experimental purposes, and a variety of different tile options will be evaluated during the launch.
SpaceX’s ninth Starship test flight is set to launch from Starbase in Texas. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI
Starship was cleared for the ninth flight test in May after the Starship 8 mission in March stopped commercial air traffic in Florida after SpaceX lost communication with the spacecraft shortly after launch.
The spacecraft suffered engine failure and automatically self-destructed, sending debris falling across parts of South Florida and the Atlantic Ocean.
The ninth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft will be the first to use its Super Heavy booster. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI
The Starship 7 mission in January also exploded after launch, sending debris into the Gulf of Mexico.
Tuesday’s launch will feature a hazard zone twice the size of the one implemented for Starship 8.
The Federal Aviation Administration also required SpaceX to secure a $550 million insurance policy to cover the hazard area that spans 1,600 miles from Starbase.
SpaceX claims that Starship is “the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed,” and can carry up over 165 tons of reusable parts, and more than 275 tons when expendable materials are in use. Starship spacecrafts are intended to serve for multiple launches and return landings with little maintenance.
According to the SpaceX website, the Starship spacecraft is designed to “represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.”
Elon Musk is scheduled to host a company talk from Starbase, Texas dubbed “The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary” via the SpaceX X account at 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, which Musk said in a note posted to X earlier in May would explain the company’s “Mars game plan.”
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