Starship Flight 9 upper stage clears static fire test with 60 seconds engine burn

Earlier today, SpaceX has completed a static fire test for the upper stage designed to be used for Starship Flight 9 in the upcoming orbital test mission.

Earlier this month, the rocket maker brought the ship to the test site for a static fire to test its six Raptor engines. After this, the ship was sent back to the factory and made a return on Saturday to conduct a second static fire.

This time, the SpaceX team locked Raptor engines for a 60-second static fire at the Massey outpost. Footage shared on X confirmed that the test was successful, and the ship is ready for Flight 9.

SpaceX Starship Single-Engine fire test (Credit – SpaceX)

The upper stage will now head back to the factory and get a recheck before it makes a way to the launch pad for an actual test flight.

These back to back tests indicate that SpaceX is focused on completing the second stage’s suborbital journey. However, that wasn’t the case with Flight 7 and 8, which witnessed massive fire generation in the aft section, leading to engine failure and unscheduled disassembly.

These back to back tests, verified engines in an ascent burn environment from start to completion. With static fire out of the way, we’re now waiting for SpaceX to announce the Starship Flight 9 launch date, which could be somewhere this month.