Flight 9 (Booster 14, Starship 35) pre-flight preparations

[lightleviathan]

S35 completed a spin prime at 8:23:40 CDT

[catdlr]

S35 completed a spin prime at 8:23:40 CDT

https://twitter.com/StarshipGazer/status/1925739686758150265

Starship 35 has completed Raptor engine spin prime testing this evening at Massey's test site ahead of upcoming Starship test flight 9.

5/22/25

[catdlr]

SpaceX Starship Flight 9

Scheduled for May 27, 2025
The first launch attempt for Starship Flight 9 with Booster 14-2 and Ship 35 from Pad A, Starbase. The window for the launch opens at 18:30 local time (23:30 UTC) on Tuesday.

This mission includes NO potential Mechazilla catch of Booster 14, as the Booster will splashdown in the Gulf. Ship 35 will be the main part of this testflight, as SpaceX aims to perform a successful Ship SECO, after two flights in a row failed to reach that milestone.

Ship 35 is the third Block 2 Ship, featuring several upgrades to mitigate the problems suffered during Flight 7 and 8.

[catdlr]

I have sent a PM to the mods to create Update and Discussion Threads now that FAA and more definite dates have been posted.

[Skye]

Goodbye pre-flight preparations thread! You will be missed! o7

[Masshole]

SpaceX website link for Flight 9 is live:

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-9

[StraumliBlight]

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1925929228232474849

TFR NOTAMS:
 • May 27, 2315 UTC - May 28, 0134 UTC
 • May 28, 2315 UTC - May 29, 0134 UTC
 • May 29, 2315 UTC - May 30, 0134 UTC

June 3rd back up date added in NOTAM #: A0724/25 [May 24]

[crandles57]

Road closure for flight activity is up
27th 28th 29th closure possible
https://www.cameroncountytx.gov/spacex/

[catdlr]

Summary:

Flight 9,
o SpaceX is targeting NET Tuesday, May 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM in 4 days for Starship Flight 9 Booster 14-2,
o First reflight of a Super Heavy Booster,
o 29 out of the 33 engines are reused,
o No catch planned, hard landing in the Gulf of Mexico,
o Boostback flip direction will be controlled by blocking vents on the HSR, which was random on previous flights.
o Higher angle of attack during descent,
o One center Raptor engine will be disabled during the landing burn to test the ability to compensate with an engine from the middle ring.
o Ship 35-1, will carry eight Starlink simulators,
o Will repeat experiments that weren't achieved on the previous flights,
o Planned to land in the Indian Ocean,

Source: SpaceX website

[catdlr]

Ship 25 swapping test stand to transport stand

VIDEO

[catdlr]

Addendum to NOTAM for splashdown posted. Perhaps the booster is going for a ballistic trajectory splash down instead of a return to splashdown off StarBase City?

[Vettedrmr]

Addendum to NOTAM for splashdown posted. Perhaps the booster is going for a ballistic trajectory splash down instead of a return to splashdown off StarBase City?

That kinda makes sense to my notion of the booster giving S35 enough delta-v to get the debris field downrange of the Caribbean in case of another RUD.  If that's the case, I wonder if the engine relight will be retrograde instead of prograde?

[catdlr]

Addendum to NOTAM for splashdown posted. Perhaps the booster is going for a ballistic trajectory splash down instead of a return to splashdown off StarBase City?

That kinda makes sense to my notion of the booster giving S35 enough delta-v to get the debris field downrange of the Caribbean in case of another RUD.  If that's the case, I wonder if the engine relight will be retrograde instead of prograde?

The booster wouldn't fly fast enough to reach that location; it would just be dropped into the Gulf, so it must be prograde. However, that's a lot of rocket and weight flying over numerous islands and territories. That's a significant risk (in my opinion).

[CMac]

Comparison of flight times to previous flights
  (to display well on mobile browser, rotate screen)

- SH burns 3s longer
- boostback happens 10s later rather than 5s later than MostECO hot-staging
- from hot-staging, SS burns for 8m 56s,
   compared to flight-8 burn of 8m 44s (11s longer),
   and flight-6 burn of 8m 30s (31s longer)
     (corrections thanks to crandles57)

idx	fl9-tm	fl9-dt	fl8-tm	fl7-tm	fl6-tm	fl6-alt	fl6-speed	Event
0.0	00:00:00	--------	00:00:00	--------	--------	0	0	Excitement T-0
1.0	00:00:02	00:00:02	00:00:02	00:00:02	--------	--------	--------	Liftoff
2.0	00:01:02	00:01:00	00:01:02	00:01:02	00:01:04	10	1212	Max Q
3.0	00:02:35	00:01:33	00:02:32	00:02:32	00:02:36	63	5295	SH MoECo (most engines cut off)
4.0	00:02:37	00:00:02	00:02:40	00:02:40	00:02:42	68	5200	Hot-staging (SS Raptor ignition and stage separation)
5.0	00:02:47	00:00:10	00:02:45	00:02:46	--------	--------	--------	SH boostback burn startup
6.0	00:03:27	00:00:40	00:03:30	00:03:30	--------	--------	--------	SH boostback burn shutdown
7.0	00:03:29	00:00:02	00:03:32	00:03:32	--------	--------	--------	Hot-stage jettison
8.0	--------	--------	--------	00:06:26	--------	--------	--------	SH is transonic
9.0	00:06:19	00:02:50	00:06:37	00:06:35	--------	--------	--------	SH landing burn start
10.0	00:06:40	00:00:21	00:06:57	00:06:55	--------	--------	--------	SH landing burn shutdown and catch
10.5	--------	--------	--------	--------	00:07:55	147	24483	SS Vac cutoff
11.0	00:08:56	00:02:16	00:08:44	00:08:53	00:08:30	149	26495	SS engine cutoff (fl6: cuts 2 about 3s before and 26483 km/h)
11.5	--------	--------	--------	--------	00:21:40	190	26314	Apogee
12.0	00:18:26	00:09:30	00:17:24	00:17:33	--------	--------	--------	Payload deploy demo
13.0	00:37:49	00:19:23	00:37:28	00:37:33	00:37:48	136	26563	Raptor in-space relight demo
13.5	--------	--------	--------	--------	00:27:50	136	26637	Raptor relight end
14.0	00:47:50	00:10:01	00:47:22	00:47:25	00:43:45	100	26801	SS entry
14.5	--------	--------	--------	--------	01:00:40	41	7300	Max entry Q
15.0	01:03:11	00:15:21	01:03:05	01:03:12	01:02:44	20	1000	SS is transonic
16.0	01:04:26	00:01:15	01:04:20	01:04:26	01:03:02	16	800	SS is subsonic (starting subsonic ...(unknow term?))
16.5	--------	--------	--------	--------	01:04:13	5	458	5 km level
17.0	01:06:11	00:01:45	01:06:04	01:06:12	01:05:08	0	302	Landing flip
18.0	01:06:16	00:00:05	01:06:06	01:06:18	--------	--------	--------	Landing burn
19.0	01:06:38	00:00:22	01:06:26	01:06:38	--------	--------	--------	An exciting landing!

[Vettedrmr]

Addendum to NOTAM for splashdown posted. Perhaps the booster is going for a ballistic trajectory splash down instead of a return to splashdown off StarBase City?

That kinda makes sense to my notion of the booster giving S35 enough delta-v to get the debris field downrange of the Caribbean in case of another RUD.  If that's the case, I wonder if the engine relight will be retrograde instead of prograde?

The booster wouldn't fly fast enough to reach that location; it would just be dropped into the Gulf, so it must be prograde. However, that's a lot of rocket and weight flying over numerous islands and territories. That's a significant risk (in my opinion).

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I don't think the booster RUD'ing prior to its landing burn, IMO, isn't that great.  When I was referring to delta v and engine relights, I was referring to the ship.  Seems to me that the booster could get the ship going fast enough, and farther enough downrange, that the ship would enter it's "high risk" region where bad things have happened on the past 2 flights, to clear the island chains.  But you make a good point about the booster mass if things go badly for it.

It'll be interesting to see, that's for sure!

[Steven Pietrobon]

PDF of online press kit.

[crandles57]

Comparison of flight times to previous flights
  (to display well on mobile browser, rotate screen)

- SH burns 3s longer
- boostback happens 5s later rather than 10s later than MostECO
- boostback 1s shorter
- SS burns for 6m 19s, compared to flight-8 burn of 6m 04s, and flight-6 burn of 5m 48s

The table indicates
boostback happens 12s later rather than 13s later than MECO

your figures
boostback happens 5s later rather than 10s later than MostECO hot-staging

The big % change is
The hotstaging is just 2 seconds later than MECO rather than 8 seconds
That seems a big cut.

Given the blocking off of some hot-stage vents to start flip in a particular direction I would expect the flip to happen faster. Perhaps having demonstrated fast staging and flip, there is then no need to start boostback in a hurry and/or being cautious with this or the flight angle of attack wanted slows this down?


3 sec longer SH burn plus faster staging doesn't seem like a lot of extra performance from booster to get ship past dangerous areas. Compared to that 15sec longer burn from ship seems a lot? What is that for? Have they added mass compared to flight 8? Going to higher altitude?

[catdlr]

From a source that I haven't validated:

https://twitter.com/ShanaDiez/status/1926049366009139216

After a long few months and a heroic effort by the Ship test team yesterday doing a final verification test at Massey’s, Ship 35 and Booster 14 are in final checkouts and will be heading to the pad this weekend.

I’ve been pretty quiet here because there has been a lot of work needed to get ready for a flight test on Tuesday.

Big launch for Starship, and as always lots of things in test, first flight proven booster, with a stress test and water landing, corrective actions from the last flight on the Raptor front, and then we still have that reentry gauntlet set for the ship once it gets to that portion of flight. This one’s going to be stressful the whole time but lots of opportunities to learn.
3:55 PM · May 23, 2025
·

[RcTeller]

This is WAY outside the box from someone with no sense of orbital dynamics or energy profiles…

Is there any chance SpaceX is testing a profile for SuperHeavy delivery to Florida via flight?  That would save a lot of shipping costs.

[catdlr]

https://twitter.com/RoughRidersShow/status/1926051210655600689

Tanker Trucks coming in non stop at Starbase in preparations for Flight 9
@NASASpaceflight http://nsf.live/starbase