SpaceX Announces Ambitious 5th Starship Test Flight for Sunday Morning

Starship's Super Heavy Booster is grappled at the launch pad in Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on Oct. 13, 2024, during the Starship Flight 5 test. Seigio Flores/AFP via Getty Images

SpaceX has announced it is going ahead with its ambitious fifth Starship rocket test flight after being given the green light to go ahead by air safety regulators.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which grants licenses for rocket launches and reentries, approved the SpaceX test mission on Saturday, Oct. 12. Shortly after, SpaceX announced on X that it was preparing to launch the Starship on Sunday morning, Oct. 13, as a “30-minute launch window opens at 7:00 a.m. CT.”

“As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates,” SpaceX said in a statement on the planned launch.

Founder, chief executive, and chief engineer Elon Musk has plans for SpaceX to be the first company to build a reusable spaceship and rocket, with the goal of ferrying people to the moon and Mars.

As the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built at 400 feet tall, intentions are for the Starship to be able to land on command upon returning to Earth. In the upcoming test, the aim is for the spaceship to make a precise controlled landing in the Indian Ocean.

The Starship-Super Heavy vehicle will launch from the company’s launch site in Boca Chica, south Texas.

In the previous test, the vehicle achieved its first full test mission around the globe without losing either the Starship craft or its Super Heavy rocket boosters. The Super Heavy stage reached its mission targets, plunging into the Gulf of Mexico waters shortly after takeoff after a successful separation from the Starship, which then engaged its own engines to blast further into space.

Meanwhile, the Starship made a controlled “soft landing” in the Indian Ocean as planned, Musk said at the time, “despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap.”

The Starship’s fourth flight lasted about 1 hour.

For its fifth test flight, SpaceX says it has an ambitious objective: to attempt to return the Super Heavy booster to the launch site in “another step towards full and rapid reusability.”

The company warned of “audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone” caused by the returning booster, which will slow down from supersonic speeds and be caught in mid-air by the catch tower infrastructure that will be ready at the launch site, Starbase.

“Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers,” SpaceX said.

If any unacceptable conditions occur during the test, the Super Heavy booster will “default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.”

This time, the Starship has also received key upgrades in the form of a complete rework of its heatshield.

“SpaceX technicians [spent] more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, and additional protections between the flap structures,” the company said. “This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and software for reentry and landing burn, will look to improve upon the previous flight and bring Starship to a soft splashdown at the target area in the Indian Ocean.”

Visitors take pictures at Starbase near Boca Chica, Texas, on Oct. 12, 2024, ahead of the Starship Flight 5 test. Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images

FAA Delays

Despite earlier delays, the FAA’s Saturday approval was issued sooner than expected. The regulator had previously told SpaceX that its launch license wouldn’t be granted until late November due to changes to Starship’s flight profile that needed a “more in-depth review” involving other agencies would need to be consulted about the flight’s environmental impact.

SpaceX criticized the agency, saying that the inefficient process for government paperwork and “superfluous environmental analysis” for rocket launches “directly threatens America’s position as the leader in space.” It said it has been ready for its fifth test flight since “the first week of August.”

“This will be a singularly novel operation in the history of rocketry,” the company said of the plans for the fifth test in September. “SpaceX goes to the maximum extent possible on every flight to ensure that while we are accepting risk to our own hardware, we accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring public safety.”

Starship-Super Heavy’s first two test flights in April and November 2023 ended in explosions of both stages. The first failed test left a crater in the pad at Boca Chica Beach and the resulting explosion hurled debris, including concrete, for thousands of feet. The third test in March “made it to space,” improving on the company’s previous milestones, but the Starship was lost upon return as SpaceX lost contact with the spaceship as it neared the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX's next-generation Starship spacecraft, atop its powerful Super Heavy rocket, lifts off on its third launch from the company's Boca Chica launchpad on an uncrewed test flight near Brownsville, Texas, on March 14, 2024. Cheney Orr/Reuters

NASA already has two Starships on order, with plans to land astronauts on the moon later this decade as part of its Artemis program. Each moon crew will rely on NASA’s own rocket and capsule to leave Earth, but meet up with Starship in lunar orbit for a return ride back down to Earth.

Musk says he plans for the Starship to eventually replace the company’s workhorse; the reusable, two-stage Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX’s launch business already lofts most of the world’s satellites and other commercial payloads into space.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.