🚀 SpaceX News №50
A cosmic hello to everyone! You’re on Rocket Hub, and this is the latest SpaceX news digest.
Today’s issue covers:
– How many days are left until the ninth flight?
– Second Starship launch stand
– Official incorporation of Starbase as a city
– Explosion of a new SpaceX engine
– And the newest Falcon 9 booster stage
Just a several hours until the Starship flight?
FAA has officially approved Starship’s ninth test flight. According to the agency, SpaceX has addressed the root causes of February’s second-stage explosion. So what went wrong back then? SpaceX recently published its Flight 8 investigation report and attributed the mishap to a hardware failure in one of the center-mount Raptor turbines, which allowed propellant to mix and ignite unexpectedly. Since that finding, more than 100 long-duration hot-fire tests of Raptor engines have been run at the McGregor facility to nail down every last detail.
On this upcoming launch, SpaceX carries $500 million in insurance against a pad-or-in-flight anomaly. The hazard zone now covers a swath of roughly 1,600 nautical miles—spanning from the Texas launch site east across the Florida Straits and up to the Turks and Caicos Islands. That’s nearly double the footprint of previous flights—not just because of higher risk statistics, but also because this will be the first reflight of veteran Super Heavy booster B14.
But what about the schedule? Liftoff is currently slated for May 27 at 23:30 UTC —which means for some of you it’s happening tonight, and for others, it’s tomorrow.
We wrote this a few days ago, so some of new facts can be missed.
With less than six hours to liftoff, Ship 35 is now firmly mated to Super Heavy B14—and all that remains are final system go-checks. Earlier, engineers completed the “Spin Prime Test” on the second stage, flowing propellant through all six Raptors without ignition to bring turbopumps up to flight-like speeds. Ship 35 then rolled back to the integration stand, where its Starlink mass simulators were installed and the flight-termination system armed. Booster B14, fresh from last-minute tweaks in the Starfactory, has been returned to Pad B and linked to Ship 35. Now, ground crews are running through the last propellant and avionics verifications before the countdown reaches zero.
Second Starship launch stand
From a bird’s-eye view, the new launch stand already looks fully ready—just look at the contrast with Pad A, which hosted all prior Starship flights.
Next to the new tower, a full trench has been cut with two steel tubular deflectors outfitted with water-cooling systems to channel exhaust sideways. On Pad A there’s only a flat slab, which each liftoff would char. After the very first Starship launch they bolted a steel “shower plate” under Pad A as a patch; on Pad B it’s built into the deck, so it absorbs part of the blast before it reaches the ground. The new stand also boasts a more efficient fueling system, and the tower’s capture arms are shorter—ready to snag not just the Super Heavy booster but the ship itself on descent. To verify the arms can handle a fully fueled second stage, engineers hung fourteen red ballast bags—each weighing up to 50 tons, for a total test load of around 900 tons.
They filled the lower tier, drained it, and refilled it multiple times.
It for checking that the system can endure repeated cyclic loads.
Starbase — the newest American city
On May 20, Cameron County officially certified the results of a local referendum and added Starbase to Texas’s roster of municipalities. The paper chase that began in March 2021 is over: SpaceX now has its own city limits around the launch complex.
It all started four years ago when Elon Musk tweeted simply, “We’re creating the city of Starbase in Texas,” which back then sounded like a joke. But now, with Starbase recognized as an official city, SpaceX can close highways and Boca Chica beach for launches—and it gives them the legal chops to pursue up to 25 Starship flights per year.
SpaceX engine explosion
On the evening of May 21, NASASpaceflight cameras at McGregor caught another engine explosion on the test stand. Flames shot out from beneath the nozzles, followed by a loud bang, and the engine shut down in under a minute. No one was hurt—at McGregor, a “test until it breaks” mentality means these explosions are par for the course.
The engine in question was likely a new Raptor 3 under active evaluation. Over the past year, McGregor has logged 1,768 hot-fire tests (1,189 of them Raptors-2 and -3), with a peak month of 189 firings—that’s roughly six tests per day. Since the stand opened, it’s now conducted over 7,000 tests, making it arguably the world’s busiest rocket-engine test facility.
Newcomer to the Falcon 9 fleet
The launch on May 21 from SLC-40 marked the debut of first stage B1095. Falcon 9 carried 23 Starlink satellites, 13 of which are equipped with the new Direct-to-Cell module that lets them communicate directly with standard smartphones—no ground station needed.
Eight and a half minutes after liftoff, B1095 landed perfectly on the ASDS Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic. It’s already the fourth new Falcon 9 booster to enter service this year.
Let us know in the comments how you liked this issue and what stuck with you most. See you in a week!