Elon Musk says Starship will launch again this week: Here's what happened on last test

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More than two months have gone by since SpaceX last launched its massive Starship rocket on an ill-fated flight test that ended in the vehicle's second consecutive explosion.

For viewers watching a livestream of the March 6 launch from home, they may have felt a sense of Déjà vu as the vehicle came apart in the sky and a cascade of fiery debris rained down below. But for SpaceX, the mishap likely represented a significant setback as billionaire founder Elon Musk has sought to accelerate the Starship's development.

Following the botched demonstration, both of Starship's test flights in 2025 have ended prematurely after the rocket's upper stage, where crew and cargo would be transported, lost power and broke apart midair.

That means as Musk and SpaceX now prepare for the Starship's ninth-ever flight test from South Texas, the stakes could not be higher.

The tech mogul no doubt hopes his commercial spaceflight company can get the Starship program back on track – especially after SpaceX just received key federal approval to ramp up testing of a vehicle due to play a massive part in future crewed missions to both the moon and Mars.

Here's a look back at the first two Starship launches of 2025, as well as a brief look at how the vehicle has fared since its debut flight two years ago.

SpaceX rocket launch: When is Starship flight 9?

Musk hinted on Tuesday, May 13, that SpaceX could launch its Starship "next week" on its ninth flight test from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas.

SpaceX hasn't officially announced a target launch date, and the Federal Aviation Administration hasn't yet issued a launch license.

But maritime warnings over the Gulf of Mexico, renamed by the U.S. government as the Gulf of America, suggest the launch is being targeted for Wednesday, May 21.

What is the Starship?

Starship, the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, is SpaceX's massive spacecraft composed of both a 232-foot Super Heavy rocket and the 171-foot upper stage vehicle.

At more than 400 total feet in height, Starship towers over SpaceX's famous Falcon 9 rocket – one of the world's most active – which stands at nearly 230 feet.

Super Heavy alone is powered by 33 of SpaceX’s Raptor engines. The upper section, also called Starship or Ship for short, is the upper stage powered by six Raptor engines that will ultimately travel in orbit.

SpaceX is developing Starship to be a fully reusable transportation system, meaning both the rocket and vehicle can return to the ground for additional missions. In the years ahead, Starship is intended to carry both cargo and humans to Earth's orbit and deeper into the cosmos.

NASA's lunar exploration plans, which appear to be in jeopardy under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, call for Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule to board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface.

But Musk is more preoccupied with Starship reaching Mars – potentially, he has claimed, by the end of 2026. Under his vision, human expeditions aboard the Starship could then follow in the years after the first uncrewed spacecraft reaches the Red Planet.

What happened on last Starship test?

The first two Starship tests of 2025 have been marred by explosions.

In the most recent launch March 6, flight operators lost contact with the upper portion of Starship, which exploded less than 10 minutes into the flight, creating debris visible from Florida to the Caribbean.

The explosion occurred despite SpaceX assuring that what mission teams learned from the seventh flight prompted them to make several modifications to the vehicle. The company provided more information on the cause of the explosion hours after the flight, while the Federal Aviation Administration was performing a mishap investigation.

Despite the failure of the Starship vehicle, the spacecraft's rocket booster has now managed to navigate back to the launch pad twice in a row. The maneuver, first completed in October 2024, involves SpaceX catching the booster with giant mechanical arms known as chopsticks.

Having the capability of catching the Starship booster is crucial for SpaceX, giving the company a completely reusable vehicle that is able to fly again.

Explosion was second of 2025

The first Starship demonstration of the year on Jan. 16 also ended in a fiery explosion after the vehicle was lost during its suborbital flight.

Mission controllers lost contact with the spacecraft within 8 1/2 minutes of its flight before determining that it was destroyed in what the company called a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.” Video on social media showed the explosion and its aftermath as remains of the spacecraft were seen breaking up in what looked like a stunning meteor shower.

SpaceX, which conducted an investigation with the FAA, determined that the mishap was due to a series of propellant leaks and fires in the aft section of the vehicle that caused “all but one of Starship’s engines to execute controlled shut down sequences." This led to the communication breakdown and the vehicle to trigger its own self destruction.

When did SpaceX begin Starship flight tests?

Prior to the January launch, SpaceX's fourth and final Starship flight test of 2024 unfolded in November in front of a newly-elected Trump. Just two test flights were completed a year prior, beginning with the maiden launch in April 2023.

While the Starship has reached space, it has yet to reach Earth's orbit – instead traveling at a lower-altitude on a suborbital trajectory.

The vehicle has also not exploded on every iteration. In three tests between June and November 2024, Starship flew halfway around the world before reentering Earth's atmosphere and splashing down as planned in the Indian Ocean – critical proof that its basic design is functional.

Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the Paste BN Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com