SpaceX reveals why the last two Starships failed as another launch approaches.

SpaceX is getting ready for the 10th full-scale test flight of the company’s massive Starship rocket after receiving launch approval from the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday.

Engineers completed the final test of Starship’s propulsion system Wednesday at the launch site in South Texas with a so-called “spin prime” test. Ground crews then rolled the craft back to a nearby hangar for engine inspections, touch-ups on its heat shield and other tasks to prepare it for liftoff.

SpaceX announced that the launch is scheduled for next Sunday, August 24, at 6:30 p.m. local time (23:30 UTC) in Texas.

Like all previous Starship launches, the massive 403-foot-tall (123-meter) rocket will lift off from SpaceX’s test site in Starbase, Texas, just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The rocket is powered by a powerful booster stage called the Super Heavy, which is powered by 33 methane-fueled Raptor engines. Six Raptors power the upper stage, known simply as Starship.

With this flight, SpaceX officials hope to put several technical problems with the Starship program behind them. SpaceX has been on a roll since launching four disappointing Starship test flights from January to May, and another Starship vehicle exploded and crashed during a ground test in June.

The setbacks followed a wildly successful year for the world’s largest rocket in 2024, when SpaceX flew Starship four times and achieved new goals on each flight. Those successes included the first-ever catch of a Super Heavy booster returning to the launch pad, proving the company’s new concept for recovering and reusing the rocket’s first stage.

These future tests, and more, are now expected no earlier than next year. This time last year, SpaceX officials had hoped to have them in 2025. All of these demonstrations are crucial for Elon Musk to fulfill his promise to send multiple Starships to build a settlement on Mars. Meanwhile, NASA is eager for SpaceX to wrap up these tests as soon as possible because the agency has selected Starship as the human-rated lunar lander for the Artemis Moon program. Once operational, Starship will also be key to building SpaceX’s next-generation Starlink broadband network.

A good result from the next Starship test flight would give SpaceX a chance to finally take a step toward these future demos after months of struggling with design dilemmas.

“The FAA has monitored and accepted the findings of the SpaceX-led investigation,” the federal regulator said in a statement. “The final accident report cites the probable root cause of the loss of the Starship vehicle as a fuel component failure. SpaceX has identified corrective actions to prevent a recurrence of the incident.”