SpaceX is gearing up for another critical test of its massive Starship rocket on Sunday, a mission that Bloomberg reports comes amid mounting scrutiny following a string of high-profile failures this year. The launch window opens at 6:30 p.m. local time from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
The test marks the 10th major attempt for Starship, billed as the world’s most powerful rocket and central to Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s long-term vision of colonizing Mars. Designed to be fully reusable, the vehicle is ultimately intended to replace SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and serve as the company’s primary launch system for satellites, human missions, and deep-space exploration.
But 2024 has proven especially difficult for the program. The first two Starship flights of the year exploded within minutes of takeoff, a third spun out of control after failing to deploy dummy satellites, and a fourth rocket was destroyed in June during fueling on a test stand. Bloomberg previously reported that the company has reassigned about 20% of its Falcon engineering team to support Starship development and reliability efforts.
For Musk and SpaceX, Sunday’s test is seen as pivotal. A successful flight, said Carissa Christensen, founder and CEO of BryceTech, “would almost kind of erase the challenges of the last year.” Another failure, however, would deepen doubts about the rocket’s readiness and SpaceX’s ambitious timelines.
On this mission, SpaceX will attempt a series of new demonstrations. The Super Heavy booster — Starship’s lower stage — will aim for a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico, rather than a return to the launch site for a catch attempt. The vehicle will also try to deploy eight dummy satellites, similar in design to the Starlink internet satellites that Starship is expected to carry in the future. Earlier attempts to open the payload bay door have failed, preventing deployment.
Engineers will also be monitoring Starship’s heat shield tiles, which protect the spacecraft during atmospheric reentry. Previous test flights have ended in explosions, preventing the recovery of any tiles for analysis.
While the program is still years away from achieving its ultimate goals, Musk has hinted that he will provide a technical update on his social platform X around the time of the launch. For now, SpaceX is focused on demonstrating that Starship can reach orbit, deploy satellites, and return safely — milestones critical to proving that the rocket can eventually take humanity back to the moon, and perhaps one day, on to Mars.
