SpaceX’s Latest Starship Flight 9 Test Has A Mysterious & Flashy Ending!
SpaceX’s latest static fire for the second-stage ship due to fly on Flight 9 might have been less than perfect. Footage from local media shows that the firm lit up several of the rocket’s engines at its test site in Texas yesterday, but after a while, the test ended with a blue flash lighting up the background. Such flashes are not part of normal static fires, and depending on the nature of the problem, they might delay Starship Flight 9 just as SpaceX had started to pick up the pace with testing the troublesome second-generation upper-stage rocket for its next-generation rocket.
SpaceX Might Have Run Into Trouble With The Starship Program Again
SpaceX recently restarted its test campaign for Starship Flight 9 after pausing following a static fire test of the Super Heavy booster early last month. The first test was a single-engine static fire, which SpaceX confirmed on its official channel. This test simulated an in-space Raptor re-ignition, which has been a key test objective for multiple Starship test flights.
SpaceX successfully ignited a Raptor engine in space in November for the first time. The ignition is a key FAA requirement for Starship’s orbital test flights as it provides SpaceX with the capability to maneuver its rocket in space and adjust the flight path to avoid uncontrolled atmospheric reentries.
However, the re-ignition was on a first-generation upper-stage Starship rocket. SpaceX is yet to conduct the re-ignition on its second-generation upper-stage Starship rocket which first flew in January.
The January test, which was the seventh Starship test flight, ended in disaster for the new upper-stage rocket, which exploded soon after separating from the first-stage rocket. SpaceX later outlined that vibrations in the propulsion system led to a fire in the rocket’s lower portion. The fire caused its engines to shut off, and eventually, the rocket exploded to rain debris on the Caribbean.
The next Starship Flight occurred in March and ended in what appeared to be a similar manner. SpaceX has mostly remained silent about why the Starship Flight 8 failed. Following the anomaly, the booster’s single-engine static fire last month was the first time that SpaceX had lit up the upper stage’s engines after the test failure.
Starship gazer has released a video of the static fire on Facebook showing what looks to be an Rvac destabilizing before the the other engiens shut down pic.twitter.com/iAvBaS5Cmn
— Blobifi (@Blobifie) May 2, 2025
In a social media post after the test, SpaceX confirmed that the ship will be the one to fly on Flight 9. It added that the test was for an in-space engine ignition as part of Flight 9 preparations. True to form, SpaceX proceeded with static firing more Starship engines the next day. However, this time around, the test appears to have been less than successful.
Footage from local media shows that the test was for roughly 30 seconds, which is quite long compared to the amount of time spent firing up a ship’s engines. The test also appears to have ended with an uncharacteristic blue light, indicating a failure that could be due to SpaceX testing the upper-stage ship to the limit and rooting out future problems.
Following its single engine static fire the day before, Starship S35 performed a extended 6 engine static fire. We will have to wait and see what SpaceX says about the results, as it looked to have been a not nominal ending.@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/BSLXxkV5Z1
— Elisar Priel (@ENNEPS) May 2, 2025
