SpaceX Starship Flight 9 recap: objectives & outcomes

SpaceX’s Starship Flight 9 launched at 7:37 p.m. EDT from Starbase Texas on May 27, 2025.

The Starship Flight 9 launch included the B14-2 Super Heavy Booster previously used in Flight 7. Ship 35 (S35) made up the upper stage in Flight 9. Overall, 33 Raptor engines were on the booster. Six Raptor engines were on the upper stage of Starship.

Starship Flight 9 Objectives

• Demonstrate booster reuse by recovering B14-2 after separation.
• Deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators from Ship 35’s payload bay.
• Perform an in-space Raptor engine relight to test orbital maneuvering capabilities.
• Test upgraded heat shield tiles, including metallic and actively cooled variants, for improved re-entry performance.
• Achieve a controlled re-entry and splashdown of Ship 35 in the Indian Ocean.

Starship Flight 9 Outcomes

Booster Performance: Post-separation, B14-2 executed a boost-back burn to return toward the Gulf of Mexico for a planned catch or splashdown. However, the booster was lost over the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX acknowledged that it did not achieve its planned recovery and has not specified the cause of the loss.

Upper Stage Performance: Ship 35 reached a suborbital trajectory with an apogee of 189 km. SpaceX attempted to deploy eight Starlink satellite simulators from S35. However, the ship’s payload bay door failed to open and prevented deployment.

SpaceX planned a Raptor engine relight in space for the upper stage but did not confirm a successful attempt. During Ship 35’s re-entry over the Indian Ocean, fuel leaked, causing a loss of attitude control.

SpaceX’s Conclusion

SpaceX concluded that Starship Flight 9 was a partial success. The company’s conclusion was based on the valuable data it gathered from reusing the booster, heat shield performance, and system behavior.

Starship Flight 9’s Significance

Flight 9 provided critical data to achieve SpaceX’s goal of making Starship fully reusable. Reusability will reduce the cost of missions to Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars. Ship 35’s failure to deploy Starlink satellites revealed an issue that SpaceX would need to fix. After all, Starlink deployment is essential for Starship’s commercial viability.

Elon Musk noted that Starship Flight tests are essential steps toward human missions to Mars and eventually making life multiplanetary.

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