Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: John Kraus

Note: FAA Statement provided to Inside Outer Space:

“The FAA is aware an anomaly occurred during the SpaceX Starship Flight 9 mission that launched on Tuesday, May 27, from Starbase, Texas, and is actively working with SpaceX on the event. There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property at this time.”

SpaceX has posted a Starship ninth flight test report.

The Super Heavy/Starship lifted off at 6:36 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, May 27 from Starbase, Texas.

Roaring out of Starbase, the booster performed a full-duration ascent burn with all 33 of its Raptor engines and separated from Starship’s upper stage in a hot-staging maneuver.

During separation, Super Heavy performed the first “deterministic flip” followed by its boostback burn.

Rapid unscheduled disassembly

“Getting real-world data on how the booster controlled its flight at this higher angle of attack will contribute to improved performance on future vehicles, including the next generation of Super Heavy,” SpaceX explains.

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

However, as it approached its designated splashdown area in the Gulf of America, following a booster relight of its 13 center and middle ring Raptor engines, “contact with the booster was lost shortly after the start of landing burn.”

At that point, the booster experienced “a rapid unscheduled disassembly” roughly six minutes after launch.

That brought to an end the first reflight of a Super Heavy booster having previously launched on Starship’s seventh flight test in January 2025.

Image credit: SpaceX

Ascent burn

Following a successful stage separation, the Starship upper stage lit all six of its Raptor engines and performed a full-duration ascent burn.

“The engines on Starship flew with mitigations in place following learnings from the eighth flight test, including additional preload on key joints,” SpaceX notes, “a new nitrogen purge system, and improvements to the propellant drain system.”

As Starship continued on its orbital coast, several in-space objectives were planned, including the first payload deployment from Starship and a relight of a single Raptor engine.

Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Reentry position

However, Starship’s payload bay door was unable to open. That issue prevented the deployment of the eight Starlink simulator satellites.

Stuck payload door.
Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

“A subsequent attitude control error resulted in bypassing the Raptor relight and prevented Starship from getting into the intended position for reentry,” SpaceX points out.

Starship then went through an automated safing process, an action to vent the remaining pressure to place the vehicle in the safest condition for reentry.

Starship plunges toward Indian Ocean. Image credit: SpaceX/Inside Outer Space screengrab

Contact lost

“Contact with Starship was lost approximately 46 minutes into the flight, with all debris expected to fall within the planned hazard area in the Indian Ocean,” the SpaceX posting explains. Data review is underway, with new improvements to be implemented, as work begins to ready the next Starship and Super Heavy vehicles for flight.

“Developmental testing by definition is unpredictable, but every lesson learned marks progress toward Starship’s goal of enabling life to become multiplanetary,” concludes the SpaceX report on flight 9.

From Elon Musk: “Starship made it to the scheduled ship engine cutoff, so big improvement over last flight! Also, no significant loss of heat shield tiles during ascent. Leaks caused loss of main tank pressure during the coast and re-entry phase. Lot of good data to review,” he posted.

“Launch cadence for next 3 flights will be faster, at approximately 1 every 3 to 4 weeks,” Musk reports.

For a replay of the test flight, go to:

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-9