Starship • Flight 9

A SpaceX Starship rocket launched on a suborbital flight from Starbase, Texas. The Super Heavy booster, tail number B14, was the first to fly for a second time, reusing 29 out of the original 33 engines flown during Starship Flight 7. The booster targeted a hard splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico more than 6.5 minutes after liftoff, however, B14 exploded during the landing burn. The Starship upper stage, tail number S35, aimed to perform similar flight objectives laid out during the Flight 7 and Flight 8 missions, like deploying Starlink simulators along a suborbital trajectory and an in-space Raptor engine relight demo. However, the payload bay door failed to fully open, preventing the deployment of the Starlink simulators. Leaks in S35 also caused a loss of attitude control and stopped multiple other milestones, like the relight demo and a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean.