Elon Musk Podcast SpaceX Starship Flight 9 Update - IFT9 News and Technical Information
Apr 23, 2025
Discover the engineering upgrades in SpaceX's Starship Flight 9, including enhanced Raptor engines and improved thermal protection. Learn about the strategic decision to skip a booster catch for better validation of key capabilities. Explore the technical advancements that improve engine reliability and stage separation, along with a new safety-focused flight trajectory. Finally, uncover the recent upgrades at Starbase, crucial for rigorous testing and future mission success.
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Flight 9 Isolates Core Tests
- SpaceX Flight 9 tests reusable Starship engines, re-entry durability, and in-space engine relighting separately to isolate and improve each system.
- Skipping the tower catch focus avoids extra variables, enhancing core vehicle capability validation and data reliability.
Reused Engines and Ocean Landing
- Booster 14 uses 33 Raptor engines, 29 reused from previous flights, to assess engine endurance through multiple cycles.
- Ocean landing replaces tower catch to better monitor descent stress and engine vectoring without ground risks.
Upper Stage Engine Redesign
- The upper stage has redesigned vacuum Raptors to fix previous combustion instability by improving plumbing, fuel delivery, and vibration isolation.
- Engine relighting in space is targeted to enable orbital refueling, return burns, and long missions, a key capability last achieved in Flight 6.