SpaceX aims to launch its Starship megarocket’s next test flight as NASA deadlines loom

The SpaceX company logo is displayed outside of the Nasdaq Marketsite at the launch of the company's initial public offering in New York on June 12.

For more than a decade before SpaceX went public, CEO Elon Musk said it should not.

He boldly told employees in 2013: “Creating the technology needed to establish life on Mars is and always has been the fundamental goal of SpaceX,” and “if being a public company diminishes that likelihood,” he wrote, “then we should not do so until Mars is secure.”

SpaceX has spent the past two decades making a name for itself — emerging as the dominant force in the global space launch industry, returning astronaut flights to the United States after years of reliance on Russia and creating a multibillion-dollar business beaming internet from space.

Underpinning each achievement was the company’s ambition to colonize Mars.

Around its IPO, SpaceX made several AI business plays that were decidedly outside the company’s typical wheelhouse.

That helped SpaceX make the largest stock market debut in history and raise more than $85 billion. But it also ginned up consternation among some longtime fans.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has even publicly acknowledged that his Mars ambitions are taking a back seat.

SpaceX’s shifting identity could be a double-edged sword, Huerta added: It could be good because it can broaden SpaceX’s areas of interest and lines of business. And it could be bad, because the company is “de-focusing” from its foundational goals. “And and I do think it is spilling into the culture,” Huerta added.

These artist’s concepts depict NASA’s Orion spacecraft and SpaceX’s Starship human landing system test article during rendezvous and docking operations as part of NASA’s upcoming Artemis III demonstration mission in low Earth orbit.

NASA’a Artemis II lunar flyby mission in April captured the world’s attention — but the space agency still has a lot to get done before it can actually put astronauts back on the moon’s surface.

For that, NASA plans to use SpaceX’s Starship.

But Starship has still never tested life support systems, attempted to refuel itself as it must for a lunar excursion, nor has it even made a trip to orbit.

At least that last line item will have to change soon if SpaceX plans to meet a looming deadline: Next year, NASA wants Starship to launch to Earth orbit and practice docking with an Orion capsule. The mission, called Artemis III, will be a test run for making the same maneuver in lunar orbit for a moon landing.

Adding to the pressure: SpaceX’s rival, the Jeff Bezos-backed company Blue Origin, will also be launching its own lunar lander on Artemis III. And NASA has signaled a willingness to use Blue Origin’s spacecraft for the moon landing instead if Starship isn’t ready in time.

After announcing the new mission earlier this year, executing it by the end of 2027 would mark a lightning-fast turn around by aerospace industry standards.

NASA named the crew for the Artemis III mission in June.

People protest against SpaceX's Starbase becoming its own municipality, at Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, Texas, in May 2025.

SpaceX’s sprawling facilities in South Texas lie along a once-serene stretch of Gulf coastline, wrapped by wildlife refuges. A single, narrow roadway — Boca Chica Highway — is the only way in or out.

That fact has frequently led to friction between SpaceX and locals. The company must shut down the roadway during tests and launches, cutting off access to a nearby public beach.

A 2009 amendment to the Texas Constitution, called Section 33, guarantees beach access: “The public, individually and collectively, has an unrestricted right to use and a right of ingress to and egress from a public beach.”

But a 2013 law passed by the state legislature attempted to carve out an exemption for spaceflight activities, allowing beach closures to “protect the public health, safety, and welfare.”

As SpaceX’s Starship program ramped up, several groups — including environmental advocates SaveRGV and the Sierra Club as well as the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas — filed suit, aruging the 2013 law violated the constitution.

The plaintiffs were handed a blow in June, however, when the Texas Supreme Court ruled that private groups do not have the right to sue to enforce Section 33, citing a phrase included in the Constitutional amendment: “This section does not create a private right of enforcement.”

(The court refrained from weighing in on whether the 2013 law does indeed violate the state constitution.)

SpaceX Starship and the Super Heavy Booster lift off on its 12th test flight in Starbase, Texas, in May.

In case you missed it, the first test flight of Starship V3 in May was a mixed bag of successes and disappointments.

The vehicle had a clean liftoff. But during stage separation — the moment that the Super Heavy breaks away from the upper Starship spacecraft, also called the “ship” — problems arose.

At that point, “slight differences in engine startup on the ship caused the directional flip of the booster to be off by approximately 90 degrees,” according to SpaceX.

Ultimately, the Super Heavy booster crashed-landed in an unintended spot when five engines failed to relight.

The ship performed slightly better — ultimately reaching its splashdown location and keeping upright — but it was forced to operate with only five of its six engines.

To address that issue, SpaceX said it has adjusted some hardware on Super Heavy’s engines in the hopes of making them relight more reliably. The ship’s startup sequence has also been changed in order to ensure the booster can “more reliably flip in the desired direction.”

Starship’s engines also have some upgrades “with additional reliability improvements planned in upcoming versions of the Raptor engine,” according to the company.

Employees cheered the victories. In the launch control room, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk chatted with mission controllers, musing “this is the hardest thing humans have ever done,” according to footage released by SpaceX.

Justin Styer, SpaceX’s senior director of Starship launch, replied:

SpaceX employees are reflected in the side panel of a Tesla Cybertruck as they gather near the Starship and Super Heavy v3 Booster at the SpaceX launch complex in Starbase, Texas, on Thursday.

SpaceX’s Starship V3 is back on the pad again as the company aims to improve upon the performance of the inaugural V3 test flight in May.

These test runs aren’t designed to showcase perfection. In fact, SpaceX has a long history of embracing fiery mishaps and explosive mistakes in the name of gathering new data.

But the company is also facing a time crunch as NASA is hoping Starship will be ready to fly to orbit next year and dock with a crewed spacecraft. That’s part of an effort to test how Starship might ferry NASA astronauts to the moon’s surface for the agency’s Artemis IV mission, slated for as soon as 2028. Time is of the essence as the United States’ rival, China, is gearing up for a moon landing by 2030.

Today’s Starship test run will look similar to the last flight in May — marking another suborbital test that will aim to stress the vehicle near its limits and continue collecting vital data.

Here’s a look at the primary goals for this hour-long test:

SpaceX will not attempt to land the Super Heavy rocket booster back between the extended metal arms of the Mechazilla launch tower, as the company has done during previous test flights.