Launch next week? Starship window open May 21-30

Starship Flight 9 will take place next week from Boca Chica/Starbase, according to a May 13 X post from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, though the company has not announced a specific date.

A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) issued by the Federal Aviation Administration lists 10 consecutive potential launch dates between May 21 and May 30, with a daily launch window starting at 6:30 p.m. The NOTAM includes offshore latitude/longitude coordinates designating a “dangerous area for falling debris of rocket Starship FLT-9.”

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a similar Local Notice to Mariners, with the first launch window opening no earlier than 6:30 p.m. on May 21. The launch will require approval from FAA.

Musk also posted that “just before the Starship flight next week, I will give a company talk explaining the Mars game plan in Starbase, Texas, that will also be live-streamed on X.” The billionaire owns the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Also on May 13, SpaceX posted that Starship S35 had completed a long-duration static-fire test of all six of its engines and is “undergoing final preparations for the ninth flight test.” The suborbital test flight will also involve Super Heavy booster B14, marking the first time a Super Heavy will have been reused. B14 was successfully caught upon landing back at the launch tower on Jan. 16 as part of Starship’s seventh suborbital test flight from Boca Chica.

Musk often cites his goal of establishing a permanent base on Mars, using a fleet of Starships for regular missions to the red planet carrying crews and cargo — an ambitious goal to put it mildly.

SpaceX has a $2.9 billion contract with NASA to develop Starship as the Human Landing System to return astronauts to the moon as part of the space agency’s Artemis lunar program.

While Musk often refers to Boca Chica/Starbase as the “gateway to Mars,” he’s also suggested more than once that Boca Chica — which will be legally incorporated as the city of “Starbase” as a result of the May 6 election — is best suited for Starship research and development, while launch facilities SpaceX is building at Cape Canaveral, Fla., likely will serve as Starship’s main operational launch site.

Although last year’s Flights 5 and 6 (Oct. 13 and Nov. 19, respectively) concluded with Starship making controlled soft-water landings in the Indian Ocean near Australia, Flights 7 and 8 (Jan. 16 and March 6) both ended with the rocket disintegrating over the Caribbean less than 10 minutes after liftoff.

The Flight 8 mishap is still under investigation, in an effort being led by SpaceX and overseen by FAA.

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