SpaceX Starship Test Flight 9 Reaches Orbit But Ends in Uncontrolled Re-entry

SpaceX’s ninth test flight of its Starship vehicle achieved a significant milestone by successfully separating from its Super Heavy rocket booster and reaching orbit on Tuesday evening. However, the mission concluded with an uncontrolled re-entry into the Indian Ocean after the spacecraft began spinning. According to SpaceX, the company had cleared the surrounding airspace in anticipation of Starship’s descent.

This test flight presented a blend of successes and setbacks for SpaceX. Notably, it marked the smoothest Starship test of the year, following two previous test flights that ended in explosions. The Starship, propelled by the Super Heavy booster, launched from SpaceX’s facility in South Texas. This launch was also the first to utilize a flight-proven Super Heavy booster, previously used and recovered during Starship’s seventh flight test.

The Super Heavy booster successfully separated, allowing Starship to enter space. However, the mission encountered issues when the ship failed to open a side cargo hatch intended for deploying mock satellites as part of a planned test. Later in the flight, Starship experienced a loss of attitude control, hindering its ability to properly orient itself for re-entry.

The ninth flight test occurred shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) cleared SpaceX to proceed with the test flight of its Starship rocket system. This clearance followed investigations into the two prior explosions earlier in the year.

In January, SpaceX successfully caught the Starship’s heavy booster rocket during its descent for the second time. Although Starship separated and ignited its engines to reach orbit, it was subsequently lost due to an anomaly. Debris from the spacecraft landed in airspace near Puerto Rico, leading the FAA to reroute several aircraft.

Another test was conducted in March, where the Super Heavy booster successfully separated and was caught by the launch tower in Texas for the third time. Starship reached space, but after eight minutes, the ship experienced multiple Raptor engine failures and began to spiral.

As a result of the two explosions, the FAA expanded the size of hazard areas in the U.S. and other countries for the flight based on an updated safety analysis provided by SpaceX. After completing an investigation in the loss of Starship on its eighth flight test, SpaceX made several hardware changes to increase reliability.