SpaceX Founder reveals Starship Flight 9 preparations after Flight 8 ship loss

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk has revealed Starship Flight 9 preparations and schedule after Flight 8’s upper stage occurred with engine failure.

Reacting to this new launch attempt, Musk wrote on X that the next ship will be ready to fly in 4-6 weeks. As usual, the company has an active production of new ships and boosters at the Megabay Starship factory.

SpaceX Founder and CEO, Elon Musk reveals Starship Flight 9 preparations

Last week, a new ship’s cryogenic test performed at the Starbase and it will soon enter the static fire phase. However, the latest ship engine failure data will allow SpaceX to improve the upcoming ship design and fix the flawed hardware.

Based on the shared timeline, Starship Flight 9 could happen somewhere in late April or early May. However, there’s not much of a hurry about his plan at the moment due to Flight 8.

SpaceX Starship Flight 8 Liftoff from Starbase, Texas

Flight 8

SpaceX launched Starship Flight 8 from Starbase Texas on March 6, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. CT. It lifted off from the launch pad with 33 Raptor engines and soon conducted hot-staging. The booster maneuvered back to launch site for a tower catch and the ship carried itself to space with 6 Raptor engines.

Before completing the ascent burn, an energetic event in the aft portion of Starship results in the loss of four Raptor engines including three central vacuum engines. After this event, the ship lost altitude control and started spinning. Later it entered in the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded. Its deberis fallen in the pre-planned Debris Response Area.

Read more below.

SpaceX reveals ascent burn failure caused Ship 34 loss during Starship Flight 8