SpaceX fires up Starship spacecraft again ahead of 9th test flight (video, photos)

SpaceX’s latest Starship vehicle has breathed fire yet again.

The company performed a long-duration “static fire” test with a Starship upper stage at its Starbase site in South Texas on Monday (May 12).

SpaceX ignited all six of the 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) vehicle’s Raptor engines during the trial, which lasted about 60 seconds.

It was the third static fire for this particular vehicle, which “is undergoing final preparations for the ninth flight test,” according to a Tuesday (May 13) SpaceX post on X that shared a video and photos of the trial.

The company has not yet announced a target date for Flight 9, but it could happen in the next few weeks. SpaceX has already performed a static fire with the first-stage booster that will launch on the mission.

Starship, which stands 403.5 feet (123 meters) tall when fully stacked, is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Both of its elements — the Super Heavy booster and Starship (or just Ship) upper stage — are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

SpaceX believes that Starship’s combination of brawn and reusability will make Mars settlement — a long-held dream of company founder Elon Musk — economically feasible at long last.

Starship has eight test flights under its belt, two of which have occurred this year.

Both of the 2025 flights — which lifted off in January and March, respectively — had similar outcomes. Super Heavy performed well and came back to Starbase for a successful catch by the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms. But the Ship upper stage had issues on both occasions, exploding less than 10 minutes into flight.

Monday’s long-duration Ship static fire seemed to go well, but we’ll see soon enough if SpaceX has indeed worked out the kinks with the big upper stage.