The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted final approval for SpaceX’s highly anticipated next launch of its Starship vehicle, marking a critical step in the company’s ongoing development of the next-generation spacecraft. The launch, known as Starship Flight 9, is now authorized to take place no earlier than the week of May 27, pending final operational readiness.
On May 22, the FAA officially announced it had concluded a comprehensive safety review, determining that SpaceX had adequately addressed the root causes of a mishap that occurred during the previous mission, Flight 8, in March. This conclusion allowed the agency to issue a “return to flight” determination, giving SpaceX the green light to proceed with its next test launch from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas.
“The FAA conducted a comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap and determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap,” the agency stated. Although the FAA did not publicly disclose the specific causes or SpaceX’s corrective measures, it affirmed that the updated risk assessments and mitigations met all federal safety, environmental, and licensing requirements.
Flight 8, launched on March 6, suffered a significant failure when the upper-stage Starship vehicle experienced what SpaceX described as an "energetic event." This led to the loss of several Raptor engines and resulted in the vehicle reentering Earth's atmosphere uncontrollably over the Caribbean Sea. Notably, the incident bore similarities to Flight 7, which also experienced a midflight failure earlier in January.
In line with its approach during the lead-up to Flight 8, the FAA approved Flight 9 despite the ongoing status of the formal mishap investigation into the previous mission. According to FAA protocol, a "return to flight" decision can be issued if the agency deems that proceeding poses no undue safety risk to the public or environment.
One of the significant updates for Flight 9 involves an expansion of aircraft hazard areas (AHAs), which define restricted airspace zones during launches. The FAA’s updated license now extends the AHA zone to approximately 1,600 nautical miles (2,960 kilometers) east of Starbase, stretching beyond the Straits of Florida and encompassing regions including the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. This nearly doubles the reach of the previous AHA for Flight 8, which spanned 885 nautical miles (1,640 kilometers).
The expanded AHAs are a direct response to the increased risk profile stemming from back-to-back failures and a notable change in launch hardware. For the first time, SpaceX will attempt to launch Starship using a previously flown Super Heavy booster — a significant milestone in the company’s pursuit of full rocket reusability.
“The FAA is expanding the size of hazard areas both in the U.S. and other countries based on the updated flight safety analysis and because SpaceX intends to reuse a previously launched Super Heavy booster rocket for the first time,” the agency explained.
Although SpaceX has not yet announced a confirmed launch date for Flight 9, the FAA has issued temporary flight restrictions for May 27 and the surrounding days, suggesting that the company is targeting that window for liftoff.
Starship remains central to SpaceX's long-term ambitions, including transporting cargo and humans to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. As the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, Starship's successful development and testing are seen as pivotal to the future of commercial space exploration.
With the FAA’s green light in hand and preparations visibly ramping up at Starbase, all eyes are now on the skies of South Texas as SpaceX prepares for what could be another major step forward — or a reminder of the challenges still ahead in reaching the stars.
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