As Elon Musk tangles with FAA, SpaceX CEO announces 8th Starship rocket launch

Show Caption

Update: SpaceX said in a post on social media site X that the Starship launch has been pushed back to 6:30 p.m. EST Monday. No reason was given for the delay. The Federal Aviation Administration also confirmed Friday that Starship has now been approved for its next launch.

Starship, the world's largest rocket, could fly again as soon as Friday on its second launch of the year if SpaceX receives a green light from federal regulators in time.

Plans for the upcoming flight test, which SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced this week, come a little more than a month since the last Starship launch ended in an explosion minutes after lifting off from Starbase in South Texas. The previous flight test in January also saw the second-ever successful return and catch of the rocket booster, known as the Super Heavy, at the launch pad.

The daring booster catch maneuver is a critical capability in Musk's goal of developing a completely reusable vehicle and rocket for upcoming missions to the moon and Mars.

"Starship 8 flies Friday," Musk said in a post this week on social media site X.

But Musk's declaration was made before his company has received formal approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. The agency, which regulates and licenses spaceflights, is one the tech billionaire has targeted for overhauls and job cuts under the Department of Government Efficiency.

Once the FAA signs off on the launch, SpaceX will not only look to replicate the booster catch, but will also conduct experiments geared toward eventually returning the Starship vehicle, the upper stage, back to the launch site. In another objective, SpaceX will take a second shot at a Starlink payload deployment test – a key capability for the vehicle in the future that was called off during the previous launch.

Here's everything to know about the upcoming launch of the 400-foot Starship, as well as what went wrong in the previous flight test.

When is the next Starship flight test?

SpaceX is planning to launch Starship Friday afternoon from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas.

As of Tuesday, the Super Heavy rocket booster had been rolled out to the launch pad amid preparations to ready the vehicle to get off the ground for the eighth time since April 2023.

The launch window is set to open at 6:30 p.m. EST Friday, according to SpaceX. If the rocket launches Friday, SpaceX will host a livestream of the flight test that will begin about 40 minutes before liftoff on its website and on social media platform X.

Reached Wednesday by Paste BN, the FAA only said it "is working with SpaceX to complete the licensing process for Starship Flight 8."

What does SpaceX aim to accomplish?

After debuting a "new generation" of Starship on the first flight of 2025, SpaceX said it has made further improvements to the vehicle's upper stage. That includes redesigns to the vehicle's forward flaps, propulsion system and avionics.

During the eighth flight test, mission operators plan to have Starship again attempt to deploy four Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship and are expected to burn up on reentry.

While the Starship vehicle is targeted to land in the Indian Ocean, SpaceX once again plans to attempt a third return and catch of the rocket booster at the launch pad, which would cause sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. The maneuver, which was first pulled off once during the October demonstration, was called off during the November launch, which then President-elect Donald Trump attended.

The company also plans to once again reignite its Raptor engines in space to attempt an orbital burn – a crucial maneuver to one day bring a vehicle back to the ground.

Starship launch plans comes after Musk targets FAA

For Starship to get off the ground, SpaceX requires a license from the FAA.

Musk has routinely tangled with the regulatory agency, which has found itself in his crosshairs as he carries out Trump's directive to slash the federal workforce under a larger initiative to cut back on government spending.

About 400 newly-hired support staff employees at the Federal Aviation Administration were fired last weekend. FAA technicians and aviation safety inspectors were exempt from the firings, as were air traffic controllers.

The move comes after Musk and SpaceX have made a habit of regularly publicly criticizing the FAA for perceived "superfluous" regulations and fines on its spaceflights. Musk, who has in the past threatened to sue the agency, this week sent a SpaceX team to the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Virginia following last month's deadly plane crash in Washington D.C. as part of Trump's vision for a new air traffic control system.

What is the SpaceX Starship rocket?

SpaceX has spent years developing and testing the Starship, which is classified as a super heavy-lift launch vehicle and is lauded as the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built.

The 400-foot vehicle features two components: The 165-foot Starship spacecraft itself, and the 232-foot Super Heavy rocket it's perched atop.

SpaceX envisions the spacecraft as being a fully reusable transportation system that can carry both humans and cargo to Earth's orbit, the moon and even Mars.

Under NASA's lunar exploration plans, Artemis III astronauts aboard the Orion capsule would board the Starship while in orbit for a ride to the moon's surface. Musk also has grand ambitions of sending the first Starships to Mars in late 2026, the next time that Earth and Mars line up, followed by crewed flights in 2028.

SpaceX completes investigation into flight 7 explosion

The most recent Starship demonstration on Jan. 16 ended in a fiery explosion after the Starship vehicle was lost during its suborbital flight in which it was meant to land in the Indian Ocean.

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 are seen breaking up in what looks 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.

What happened on previous Starship 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. Two previous tests were conducted in 2023.

All flight tests so far of the super heavy-lift launch vehicle have generally improved with each iteration. During the fourth test on June 6, the Starship vehicle splashed down for the first time in the Indian Ocean after the first three tests ended in explosions.

But one of the pivotal accomplishments last year for SpaceX came on Oct. 13, when the rocket booster was able to steer autonomously back to the landing pad, where it was caught with two giant mechanical arms. 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.

SpaceX to increase Starship launches in 2025?

Musk has sought to ramp up testing in 2025 of the Starship vehicle, which has yet to reach orbit in any of its seven flight tests so far.

A proposal from Musk under consideration by the FAA would more than quintuple the flight tests to 25 this year. Though Musk's request would need approval from federal regulators, it comes as the tech mogul's influence over U.S. policy and the federal government has grown under Trump's administration.

The FAA, which solicited public input on the proposal, told Paste BN that is has yet to make a ruling.

This article has been updated to add new information.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com